LONDON - Bangladeshi authorities have arrested four men suspected of killing a Saudi Arabian diplomat in Dhaka on March 6, the press agencies of both countries said on Wednesday.
Khalaf Ali was shot dead near his home and was the second Saudi diplomat in South Asia to be killed in 10 months - incidents that initially raised fears of a concerted campaign of assassination. The Saudi ambassador to Pakistan was killed in May last year. Another Saudi diplomat is being held hostage in Yemen.
However, the suspects appeared to be ‘bandits’, said Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, in a statement released on Saudi Press Agency.
The ruling family of the Sunni Muslim kingdom and world’s top oil exporter has been a target for Al-Qaeda and is engaged in a fierce rivalry for Middle East influence with Shia Muslim power Iran. “The arrestees confessed their involvement in the killing during interrogation,” deputy commissioner Nazrul Islam was quoted as saying by the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency.
He told the agency that a pistol and a white car had been seized.