Saudi Diplomat Shot Dead in Bangladesh

A Saudi Arabian diplomat was shot in the chest and died in the Bangladesh capital in the early hours of Tuesday, the deputy commissioner of Dhaka police told Agence France Presse.

Police found Khalaf Al Ali at an intersection just two buildings away from his residence in the city's upmarket Gulshan district and rushed him to a hospital where he died three hours later, Lutful Kabir said.

"He was hit by a bullet in the left chest," he said, adding that the 45-year-old was the head of Saudi citizen affairs at the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

The police did not give any indication of who might have been behind the attack.

The embassy confirmed the death, but would not give further details.

Saudi Arabia is a key ally of and a major donor to Bangladesh.

More than two million Bangladeshis work in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom, accounting for a quarter of the country's total overseas population.