SAUDI parents of students who win state-sponsored foreign scholarships will be very happy to send their children abroad to pursue their higher education at reputable international universities and institutes in order to realize their hopes and aspirations and to have a bright future. Parents will be shocked when their young children face sudden death due to chronic diseases or accidents. You can imagine their mental condition when they hear that their son/daughter was killed by criminals while living in foreign countries. Think of the condition of a person who waits at the airport to receive the body his slain brother, and cleaning that body in front his father and mother for funeral. The father places the body inside the grave and his family members and relatives paying their last respects. These are moments when even the bold not be able to control emotions. The life of families who have lost their beloved sons and daughters while studying abroad would not be the same. They will always remember their slain kith and kin and will not be able to celebrate happy occasions with joy and gaiety. We should leave the issue of Saudi scholarship students being murdered and shot dead in US and other countries as a coincidence or an ordinary incident. We have to discuss such incidents and should know why they happen and what precautions must be taken to prevent its recurrence. We should not forget that the slain students are our children. Some of them were kidnapped and beaten to death while others were shot dead or stabbed to death. Most of these incidents have taken place in mysterious circumstances and security agencies have not shown enough keenness to find the culprits. Ever since the finding of a burned body of Sultan Al-Amri in 2012 in Australia, we have been noticing a number of murder incidents involving Saudi scholarship students in different countries. Police found Al-Amri's body in a forest close to Austin after he was missing for several days. Police said the fire that swallowed Al-Amri's body might have been created intentionally to remove all traces of the crime. This shows the crime was planned and not a coincidence. We should not forget the video clip that was circulated just before the murder of Nahid Almanea who was stabbed to death in Colchester by a teenager in 2014. The British police did not display its usual enthusiasm to arrest the Saudi woman's murderer. Scotland Yard police are well-known for their crime investigation capabilities but their efforts to find out Almanea's killer were not impressive. Four months after the murder of Almanea, another student Raed Al-Baqshi, was found dead in his bed. The murder took place three years after he joined Michigan's central university to obtain a degree in electrical engineering. His body was recovered two days after he was found missing from the university while police said they did not find any criminal motives behind his death. In October 2014, another scholarship student Abdullah Al-Qadi's body was found a month after he was declared missing. He was also studying electrical engineering. The killer stabbed Al-Qadi while attempting to steal his car. I don't know why I should believe that the murder of two Saudi electrical engineering students was just a coincidence. In November 2014, another student Hassan Al-Huwaidi was stabbed to death by unidentified criminals while he was returning to his Toronto residence after visiting a friend. In 2015, student Mansour Al-Yami died of pistol wounds at a hospital as unknown thieves fired at him after they robbed his valuables. A few months later another Saudi student Rayan Ibrahim was found dead in a pool of blood near his car in the parking area of Wichita State University, Kansas. According to my knowledge police have not yet arrested Ibrahim's killer. Last month we heard the murder of student Hussain Al-Nahdi in Wisconsin after a brutal attack. He died of severe bleeding from his mouth and nose. Police have not yet arrested Al-Nahdi's killer. These murders were not coincidence and occurred due to racism and hatred. The number of scholarship students in US alone has reached more than 80,000 who have been distributed in 51 American states. Taking care of these students will not be an easy task. Saudi embassies, consulates and cultural attaches must double their efforts to ensure safety of our students in US and other foreign countries. This can be done by increasing safety awareness of students, sending continuous safety messages to remind students on the need to take precautions and asking them to avoid practices that would draw undue attention and to keep away from dangerous places. But I am disappointed to hear the irresponsible statements of some security officers who consider the murder of Saudi students as just coincidence and they negate criminal motives behind thm. We have learned from press reports that most of these murders involving Saudi students were planned and inspired by racism.
