Govt not sure of any Bangladeshi victim

Foreign-owned shops in South Africa were attacked and looted in eastern Johannesburg yesterday, the latest in a series of xenophobic attacks and the Bangladesh's foreign ministry could not confirm whether there was any Bangladeshi among the victims.
Around 60,000 to 70,000 Bangladeshi expatriates are staying in South Africa and most of them are shoppers.
After the recent violence, the Bangladeshis kept closed their shops since Wednesday.
They have no information whether any shop of Bangladeshis was attacked yesterday, said Lutfor Rahman, director general of Consular and Welfare Wing of the foreign ministry.
However, they had been noticing that foreigners especially the Bangladeshis and Chinese were being attacked by Africans, he added.
Police said about 200 foreigners took refuge at a police station, and 12 people were arrested over the attacks, reports BBC.
At least five people died in anti-foreigner attacks in recent weeks.
Many jobless South Africans accuse foreigners of taking jobs in a country where the unemployment rate is 24 percent, adds BBC.