Family members of Mohin Uddin in Feni have been beset with grief after the migrant worker was killed by a gang of extortionists in South Africa.
The 40-year-old who worked as a shopkeeper was shot dead in the country's North-West Province on Wednesday. Locals found his body inside a fridge the next day.
Mohin’s parents are in despair over the loss of their eldest son, said Chandrapur Union Council Chairman Masud Raihan. "They are asking for government’s help in arranging the immediate return of their son's body to Bangladesh."
“The criminals came to rob Mohin’s shop at night. They shot him and dumped his body in a fridge,” said Humayun Kabir, the victim's younger brother.
Kabir said that his brother migrated to South Africa around three years ago in search of a better livelihood. He ran his own shop in North-West Province’s Rustenburg.
“He was being harassed for money by a gang of extortionists for a while. Locals later found his bullet-riddled body inside a fridge in the shop,” he said.
According to the South African government, there are over two million foreign nationals currently residing in the country.
Around 95,000 of the country’s foreign population are Bangladeshis, the majority of whom run electronics and grocery stores. Some are also plying their trades in the restaurant business.
But South Africa is gradually turning unsafe for its expatriate population. Reports of robbery, abduction and murder of migrants are recurrent.
In 2018 alone, nearly a hundred expatriates including a large number of Bangladeshis have died at the hands of local assailants, reports bdnews24.
After discovering Mohin’s body inside the fridge on Thursday, locals contacted the victim’s relative Anwar Hossain, also a migrant in South Africa. Anwar later conveyed the news to the family in Bangladesh.
Mohin is survived by his three daughters and son who are currently living in Chandpur.
