BAHAWALPUR Sept 10: Police claim to have recovered antiquities allegedly stolen from the basement of the historic Sadiqgarh Palace of late Nawab Muhammad Sadiq Khan Abbasi in 2003, from a constable who was arrested on Monday.

The recovered items including two stone statues – one of late King Charles and the other of Queen Elizabeth I – besides 15 rifles, mirrors and precious pieces of pottery etc, had been kept in the palace’s basement that was sealed in 1970.

Dera Nawab Sahib police had registered an FIR of the theft of these antiquities in 2003.

According to the police, the arrested constable, Muhammad Abbas, was among the police guards posted at the historic palace.

During the previous years, several arrests were made in connection with the theft and some of the stolen antiquities were recovered which had been with the police since then.