Bangladeshi police officers and officials from Saudi Arabia's Embassy in Bangladesh inspect the area where a Saudi Arabian diplomat was shot last night in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, March 6, 2012. Khalaf Mohamamd S. Al Ali was found with bullet injuries in his chest on a street in Dhaka's Gulshan residential area shortly after midnight, police official Kamrul Hasan said. He said Al Ali, 45, was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. (AP Photo)
(CNN) Gunmen shot and killed a Saudi diplomat in Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, on Tuesday, police said.
Bangladesh police said Khalaf Al Ali, 45, had served two years at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Dhaka as head of citizens' affairs.
The Saudi Embassy in Dhaka confirmed the death but declined to make a comment.
Ali was shot dead in the city's highly secured Gulshan diplomatic zone in front of his rented apartment at about 1 a.m. Tuesday, and he died at a local hospital about 5 p.m., authorities said.
Lutful Kabir, a deputy commissioner of Dhaka's metropolitan police, said no motive for the killing has been found.
"He was shot in the left chest from a close distance," he said after an initial investigation.
"We're shocked. ... It's unexpected and unfortunate. ... We'll use all possible means to bring the culprits to book," Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said. [...]
The murder could be related to this:
In October, Saudi authorities executed eight Bangladeshi workers in public for their alleged involvement in an armed robbery in which an Egyptian security guard was killed. Dhaka criticized the beheadings, as did the United Nations.
