Corpse of missing Chinese worker found in Bangladesh

By Md. Kamruzzaman

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) – The corpse of a Chinese national who worked at a coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh’s main port city of Chattogram was recovered from a water-logged ditch near the factory premises on Thursday morning, one day after he went missing, according to police sources.

The overseas employee identified as G. Kingwan, 34, remained missing since Wednesday noon and a general diary was registered with the local Banshkhali police station.

“We are investigating the incident to determine the cause of death,” local police chief Saiful Kabir told Anadolu Agency over the phone.

He said the Chinese citizen reportedly went fishing in the Bay of Bengal adjacent to the power plant on Wednesday morning, confirming the preliminary information from the site.

“Most probably, the deceased Chinese citizen mistakenly fell into the ditch and he did not know how to swim," Kabir opined.

“But nothing can be ascertained until we complete the investigation,” he said and added that the body has been sent to Chattagram Medical College and Hospital for an autopsy.

In June of this year, a Chinese engineer working on the country's massive bridge project across the Padma River near the capital Dhaka went missing.

Zoe, a 25-year-old Chinese professional, had only been with the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project for six months when he disappeared. Authorities concerned conducted a massive search of the river and surrounding areas but found no trace of him.

“We checked all possible areas along the mighty river Padma, but we have not found Zoe. We don’t know whether he fell into the river, or was kidnapped or willingly fled away,” Dewan Abdul Kader, executive engineer of the megaproject, told Anadolu Agency over the phone.

In December 2016, a Chinese citizen, Cheng Hi Sheng, 42, was reportedly murdered by his two associates at a warehouse in the southwestern district of Jessore.

According to the government’s records, currently, 600,000 Chinese citizens have been working in the South Asian nation of 165 million people, while unofficially the figure may exceed one million. Around 500 Chinese institutes are doing business activities in Bangladesh.