Manama: Khalaf Al Ali, the Saudi diplomat shot and killed in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, was about to move to Amman, his brother said.
The UAE on Tuesday condemned Al Ali's assassination, with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Mohammad Gargash expressing the UAE's "denouncement of the terrorist crime which led to the demise" of the diplomat.
Meanwhile, Al Ali's brother, Khalid, told Saudi news site Sabq that the diplomat had worked in the Saudi embassy in Dhaka for two years after being posted in Azerbaijan for seven years. "He was scheduled to be moved to Jordan within months,” Khalid said.
Khalid said that the diplomat had called him on Monday to inquire about his brothers, sisters and only son, Nasser, 24.
“We are a family of nine members and Khalaf was like our father after we lost both our parents,” Khalid said.
Khalaf did not have any enemies or problems with anyone, he said.
In Bahrain, Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa, the foreign minister, said that the assassination of the Saudi diplomat was part of an open war.
“Evil and criminal hands have assassinated Saudi Arabian diplomat Khalaf Al Ali in Bangladesh,” Shaikh Khalid wrote on his Twitter account. “It is an open war and the criminal is known,” he wrote, without further explanation.
With inputs from WAM
