Four Bangladeshis were killed when a car heading to the airport crashed while traveling from Taif to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Two of the dead were from Kanaighat upazila, Sylhet.
The accident occurred around 2 p.m. Monday in the Al-Khurma area of Taif.
The two Kanaighat expatriates killed were identified as Abdul Karim and Khalid Ahmed, residents of Lamar Taluk village in the upazila’s Gachbari area. The identities of the other two victims were not known.
Local sources said Abdul Karim and Khalid Ahmed were preparing to return home after spending a long time living abroad in Saudi Arabia. They died in the tragic accident while on their way to the airport to fly home.
News of the two expatriates’ deaths cast a pall of grief over the area, with relatives and neighbors gathering at the families’ homes.
South Banigram Union Parishad Chairman Lokman Uddin confirmed the deaths. After learning of the news, he visited the families of the deceased to offer his condolences, calling the incident an irreparable loss for the two families. In June this year, five expatriates from Kanaighat upazila were killed in a road accident in Qatar. Another Kanaighat expatriate died in a road accident in Saudi Arabia in July. With two more Kanaighat expatriates now killed in Taif, concern has grown across the upazila over the safety of its expatriate workers.