DHAKA, 13 April 2004 — The shooting of two employees of foreign businesses in Chittagong has sent shockwaves through the foreign investors community in the southeastern port.

A top official of the Korean export processing zone (KEPZ) was injured and an employee of Taiwanese food chain store Fu Wang was killed in separate incidents in Bangladesh’s commercial capital.

Police said the attackers killed Babul Hossain, 28 and accounts officer of Fu Wang Foods, and looted 300,000 taka ($5,000) he was going to deposit with a bank on Sunday.

Hours earlier, Golam Rabbani, managing director of the KEPZ, was shot in the throat when attackers waylaid his microbus at Muradpur in Chittagong.

Witnesses said five attackers ambushed the auto-rickshaw a few minutes after Babul and three of his colleagues hired it in front of their office. One of the gunmen shot Babul, who was carrying the day’s takings, killing him instantly.

Police on the patrol nearby retrieved his body, but could not arrest anyone.

Police and witnesses said yesterday the attackers burst into Rabbani’s microbus on the way to KEPZ across the Karnaphuli River and looted the cash and other belongings of the top official and his colleagues before opening fire.

Rabbani is a former chairman of Chittagong port and ex-director general of shipping.

The assailants stopped the microbus he and his colleagues from the KEPZ, a sister concern of Korean conglomerate Youngone Corporation Ltd, was riding on, putting up a barricade at Muradpur.

Rabbani, also a former navy commodore, was rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital and shifted to the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka by a Cessna aircraft of KEPZ that he joined Jan. 1.

Police said five people were arrested on charge of attacking the vehicle, but the motives for the crime appeared hazy.

A top official of Chittagong Metropolitan Police said his office had some important leads to the attack, but declined to reveal them “in the interest of investigation”.

Other police officers linked the attack to internal conflict in the KEPZ over the termination of former executive director Abu Naser Chowdhury.

But Naser denied any hand in the crime, saying his quarrel was with the KEPZ authorities, not with any individual.

Chittagong is still reeling from a wave of kidnappings for ransom and the largest ever arms seizure on April 2.

Security of the city was stepped up after the seizure of 10 truckloads of sophisticated weapons including rockets, rocket launchers, submachine guns, grenades, AK-47 rifles and bullets.

Most foreign investors locate their factories in Chittagong because of its port.