Gulf states have condemned the
assassination of a Saudi diplomat in Bangladesh on Tuesday.
The
Bangladeshi government confirmed it has launched a large-scale investigation
into the killing of 45-year old Saudi Embassy official Khalaf bin Mohammed Salim Al-Ali
in the capital Dhaka.
“Bangladeshi
authorities have started investigations at the highest level to understand the
circumstances and the motives for the murder,” the statement said.
“The
Saudi government had demanded quick results from the Bangladeshi government and
further requested adequate protection for all the staff working at its embassy
in Dhaka.”
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs
confirmed in a statement that Al-Ali was shot by an anonymous gunman at around
2am while he was walking at close proximity to his home, Saudi-based Arab News
reported on Wednesday.
The diplomat’s body was found by police
just two buildings away from his residence in the capital’s Gulshan District. They
rushed him to the hospital, where he died three hours later.
“The UAE has
expressed strong denunciation of the heinous and brutal crime of murdering
Saudi diplomat Khalaf Mohammed Ali in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka,” the
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash said in a
statement to the WAM news agency.
Bahrain
has also confirmed that it stands by Saudi Arabia in combating such acts of terror, Bahrain News Agency
reported.
In a press statement, Kuwaiti
Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet
Affairs, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah urged Bangladeshi authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice, the Kuwait News Agency reported.
Al-Ali
was a second secretary at the consular division of the embassy in Dhaka. He was to move to the Saudi Embassy in Amman, Jordan,
in two months, reported Arab News.
He
is the second Saudi diplomat to be killed on foreign soil in a year, following
the assassination of an official in Karachi, Pakistan in May 2011.
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