RIYADH, 2 July 2004 — An investigation is under way into the mysterious death of an Indian truck driver on the Kuwaiti border with the Kingdom.
Hanifa had been on his way back to the Kingdom together with another driver, a friend of the dead man said.
He said Hanifa and Mohammed Sadiq reached Kuwait on June 24 night with a truckload of mineral water and were on their way back on Saturday.
Around 10 p.m., while both were sleeping in the open by the side of the truck, Hanifa suddenly screamed and went into convulsions.
“On hearing the screaming, Sadiq called for help and an ambulance arrived in 15 minutes,” Wajid, a local truck driver, reported quoting Sadiq’s account.
He said Hanifa, who was bleeding mildly from the head, was unconscious and was dead on arrival at the hospital. Examination revealed he had been shot in the head, he said.
Wajid, who often drives the route, said the border areas in Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia are still lawless territory swarming with bandits and terrorists.
Shootings and abductions of truck drivers are more common on the Iraqi border. Two foreign truck drivers were released late last month, weeks after they were kidnapped there.
However, the Kuwaiti border sees its share of violence, and an Indian truck driver recently suffered multiple fractures when he was attacked in the area.
Wajid said Sadiq was stranded in Kuwait while the investigation continues. Police believe a stray bullet fired by revelers at a wedding party could have killed Hanifa.
Hanifa and Sadiq were neighbors in Kerala. They came to Saudi Arabia together seven years ago. Their Saudi employer has gone to Kuwait to be with Sadiq, who said the Indian Embassy three days ago asked him to report to the mission.
