Elderly Japanese man slain in drive-by shooting in Bangladesh, 2nd killing of a foreign national in a week
Bangladesh authorities worry about latest killing, the second in a week after murder of an Italian aid worker claimed by Islamic State
A Japanese citizen was shot dead by gunmen in a northern Bangladesh town yesterday, police said, days after an Italian aid worker was murdered in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group.
Police said the victim, whom they named as Hoshi Kunio, aged 66, was riding in a rickshaw when he was shot dead in Kaunia town in Rangpur district.
“He was travelling to the town from Rangpur city, where he had been living for a while, on a cycle rickshaw when his vehicle was stopped by three men riding on a motorcycle,” said deputy Rangpur police chief Saifur Rahman.
The Bangladesh government sought to allay concerns over the safety of foreign nationals in the country after the second killing in a week, saying it was taking both murders “very seriously”.
“Whoever is involved with the killings will be identified and brought to book,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told reporters.
A string of slayings claimed by radical Islamic groups has Bangladesh scrambling to contain what appears to be a rising tide of extremism, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time – the country’s fragile economic growth is faltering this year amid renewed political unrest.
Kunio was a frequent visitor to Bangladesh and worked on a farming project in Rangpur, about 300km north of the capital Dhaka, police said.
“Two of the assailants shot him twice in the chest with pistols while the other waited with the motorbike ready to flee,” local police chief Rezaul Karim said, adding four people had been interrogated over the murder but none had been arrested.
Kunio’s landlord Jakaria Bala told Bengali daily Prothom Alo that the victim had leased a piece of land in a village near Kaunia town to grow grass for cattle.
A Japanese embassy spokesman in Dhaka said they were seeking more information regarding the deceased.
“According to the information we got from the law enforcement agencies, it appears to indicate that he was a Japanese who is in his 60s,” said spokesman Takeshi Matsunaga.
The attack came less than a week after an Italian aid worker was shot dead near the capital’s diplomatic zone.
The government has sought to calm escalating security fears in the country after the attack was claimed by Islamic State, describing it as an ”isolated incident”.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been cracking down on radicals. Police have arrested dozens of suspected members of various hardline militant groups in 8recent years, including six that have been banned.
The government dismissed the IS claim, saying there was no evidence. “There is no existence of Islamic State here,” the home minister said on Tuesday.
That may actually be true. Still, the attacks present a serious challenge for Hasina, who rose to power in 2008 largely on promises she would crack down on the radicalism that has been evident since 2001, when the militant group Harkatul Jihad carried out a deadly bombing during New Year celebrations.
International schools closed temporarily and Western embassies restricted their diplomats’ movements, while Australia’s cricket team cancelled a planned tour of the country over security concerns.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
