Lankan engineer goes missing in Saudi Arabia

RIYADH: Police in Saudi Arabia are seeking public help to locate a Sri Lankan engineer who went missing from a leading hospital. Bataheene Wederalage Seneviratne, 58, went missing from the King Fahd Hospital in Al-Hasa on December 18 after being admitted for treatment following a car accident on November. 16.

Confirming the disappearance of the patient from the hospital, a senior official from the Sri Lankan Embassy here told Arab News that the hospital authorities have said that the patient may have walked out of the hospital as a result of memory loss following the unfortunate incident. Such patient is described as an endangered runaway, the official said, adding that the mission cannot come to a conclusion till the real reasons for his disappearance are found.

Seneviratne, who holds a Sri Lankan passport No. 0984185, was working for GECAT Construction Company in Al-Hasa as a civil engineer.

The diplomat said that the mission had received a complaint from his son, Madura Seneviratne in Colombo through the External Affairs Ministry (EAM).

The official said the mission had lodged a complaint with the local police and had also informed social service organisations in the Eastern Province to find the whereabouts of the missing person. In Colombo, the son had taken up the matter with the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) and the EAM.