Two die of gunshots in Jubail

JUBAIL - A Saudi man gunned down his 44-year-old Indian expatriate colleague in Jubail last week. The citizen, said to be in his 50s, then turned the gun on himself. Both died on the spot at their workplace. company's control room.

The two had been working for the National Environmental Preservation Company (Beeah). The police have not revealed their names or the circumstances in which the two died. Investigations are still ongoing.

Community elders have, however, identified the Indian man as Fayyaz Ahmad, a father of three children. He had been working as an engineer for Beeah for the last 17 years. He came from Gaya district in India's Bihar state. He was a graduate of India's historic Aligarh Muslim University.

In a statement yesterday, a spokesman for the Eastern Province police, Ziad Al-Riqaiti, said, "The police in Jubail received a distress call from one of the company representatives stating that two of their staffers had died because of gunshots. Our team of investigators and forensic experts immediately rushed to the site and carried out the preliminary investigations. The two men were dead and their bodies were lying next to each other. We are still conducting the necessary inquiries to unravel the circumstances behind the tragedy."

The Saudi national's body has been released from a local hospital and he has been laid to rest. The Indian national's body is being kept at the Dammam Central Hospital. It may be released this week.

Ahmad's wife, Darakhshan, is in a state of shock just as other members of the well-knit Indian community. His three children are unaware of the killing of their father. "They are in tears and totally confused," said an Indian community elder with close connection to the family. "We have been visiting them every day and are trying to lend them all support," he said.

Darakhshan was to travel to India last week to attend the funeral of her mother. "This is a double tragedy for her," said another family friend. "She had not even absorbed the shock of her mother's death when the news of her husband's tragic death was broken to her. She is totally crestfallen."

The community members have praised the company and its top executives for lending complete support to the family in distress. "Our top officials have directed us to ensure that Darakhshan and her children get full support in this hour of crisis," said one of Ahmad's colleagues.The Saudi national's name has not been disclosed. However, a close family acquaintance told Arab News that every one in the family is shocked by the killings. "They expressed their grief and sorrow at the deaths," he said.

"He was single and lived a lonely life, and tried on several occasions in the past to commit suicide. He suffered from psychological illnesses," he quoted the family members as saying. "We can not identify the cause of his attack on his colleague, but we believe it was a result of some disagreement related to their duty hours." The killings have created a sense of nervousness among the company's staff. A final inquiry is expected to reveal as to what really happened in the run-up to the killings.

source: Arab News