Police and officials from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Bangladesh inspect the spot where Khalaf Al Ali was shot dead in Dhaka
Police and officials from the Saudi Arabian embassy in Bangladesh inspect the spot where Khalaf Al Ali was shot dead in Dhaka Reuters

A Saudi official has been found shot to death in Dhaka, Bangladesh, according to local media.

The Bangladeshi newspaper, the Daily Star, identified the dead man as Khalaf al Ali, a Saudi citizen who joined the embassy in Bangladesh about two years ago.

Nurul Alam, a senior police official, told the paper that Ali was found with chest wounds near his home in the upscale Gulshan district. Police speculate that Ali might have been murdered elsewhere, with the killers later dumping the body in Gulshan.

Lutful Kabir, another senior police officer. told the BBC: [Ali] was found with a gunshot wound. Then he was taken to a nearby hospital. But he died a few hours later. We have stepped up security in the area.

However, it is unclear exactly what position Ali, 45, held at the embassy. The Saudi ambassador to Bangladesh, Abdullah Al Bussairy, identified the murdered man as a “diplomat,” but the acting Foreign Secretary Mustafa Kamal claimed Ali was on the “non-diplomats’ list” of the foreign ministry.

No arrests have been made in connection with the death, nor has a motive been unearthed.

The Daily Star noted that this was the first time in Bangladeshi history that a foreign embassy official was ever killed in Dhaka.

Saudi Arabia is a major investor in Bangladesh, while an estimated 2-million Bangladeshi immigrants work in the kingdom.

However, diplomatic ties between the two Islamic nations were strained by the beheading execution of eight Bangladeshis in the Saudi last year for murder.