Saudi embassy official shot dead

Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Abdullah Al Bussairy, second from left, visits the spot in the capital's Gulshan where an official of the embassy was shot dead yesterday. Photo: Palash Khan

An official of the Saudi embassy in Dhaka was shot dead some 30 yards off his house in the city's Gulshan early yesterday.
Khalaf Al Ali, a Saudi national who joined the embassy about two years ago, was shot once in the left chest, Nurul Alam, assistant commissioner (Patrol) of Gulshan Division, told The Daily Star.
Saudi Ambassador to Bangladesh Abdullah Al Bussairy identified the man as a diplomat.
Mustafa Kamal, the acting foreign secretary, said Ali was on the non-diplomat list of the foreign ministry.
The ministry in a statement last night said, “As per records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the deceased had been working as an administrative staff of the Royal Saudi Embassy.”
Police are yet to arrest anyone or find out the motive behind the incident, said Khandker Lutful Kabir, deputy commissioner of Gulshan Division.
This is the first time in Bangladesh's history that a foreign embassy official in Dhaka has been killed.
Identifying Ali as a “very soft spoken and polite” person, a Bangladeshi official at the Saudi embassy said everybody liked him very much.
Expressing his condolences, Minister of State for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku told reporters at his secretariat office that the ministry had already directed law enforcers to take necessary steps toward investigating the killing.
No case was filed as of 1:00am today.
Ali, 45, had been living alone at Flat A-4, House 22/A, Road 120 in Gulshan for the past two years, said Taposh Rema, a security guard of the building.
According to a Saudi embassy note verbale (diplomatic communication), some unidentified people attacked the official near his house.
Two security guards -- Zulfikar Ali of House 19/B and Rabiul Islam of House 20/A -- told The Daily Star that they heard a gunshot around 1:15am. Rushing out, they found the Saudi official lying on the road in front of House 19/B.
Talking to The Daily Star, Taposh Rema said around the same time he saw from his building a white-private car leaving the place at a very high speed.
“We immediately switched the siren on from our house,” Zulfikar said.
Hearing the siren, a police patrol came and took the bullet-hit Saudi official to United Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
After the incident, personnel from the Criminal Investigation Department of police and Rapid Action Battalion cordoned off the crime scene.
The body was taken to Dhaka Medical College morgue at 4:00pm for an autopsy.
The bullet entered near the left chest and went down to hit his right kidney, morgue sources said.
Taposh Rema said Ali used to go out of the house around 11:00 every night, roam around the city on his bicycle and return in around two hours.
“As his bicycle needed repairs, he went out on foot last night [Monday night],” he said, adding the Saudi official was wearing trousers, vest and boots and had a bottle of water in his hand.
The Saudi ambassador visited the crime scene in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Saudi embassy sent a note verbale to the foreign ministry, requesting the ministry and the authorities concerned to investigate the murder, said a foreign ministry source.
Senior foreign ministry officials, including the chief of protocol and director general (West Asia), phoned the Saudi ambassador in Dhaka and deputy chief of mission to convey their condolences.
In a statement, the foreign ministry expressed deep shock at the death and sympathy for the bereaved family and the Saudi mission in Dhaka.
The authorities concerned had already been directed to conduct a full-scale investigation into the incident immediately and bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice, the statement said.
CONDEMNATIONS, SHOCKS
Opposition Leader in parliament Khaleda Zia, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni and Prime Minister's International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi expressed their deep shock at the killing.
"This type of incident in our country is completely unwanted and unexpected,” the foreign minister said.
“Our relations with Saudi Arabia are excellent and this incident will definitely not have any adverse effect on our ties and neither will it lead to a deterioration in diplomatic relations,” she added.
Khaleda Zia, also BNP chairperson, in a statement said this was for the first time that a foreign embassy official had got killed in Bangladesh, which proved the poor state of law and order.
Expressing concern, she condemned the killing and demanded exemplary punishment for the killer(s).
In a separate statement, BNP acting secretary general Fakhrul Islam Alamgir also condemned the incident.
Prime Minister's International Affairs Adviser Gowher Rizvi termed the killing a "heinous act".
“I hope it will not create any problem in the relations between the two countries,” he told reporters at the Liberation War Museum yesterday.
Islami Andolon Bangladesh chief Syed Muhammad Rezaul Karim also condemned the killing.