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Reuters

For the second time in a week, Bangladesh’s government has rejected a claim by the Islamic State group that it was responsible for gunning down a foreigner in the South Asian country.
After assailants shot and killed Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi in northern Bangladesh on Saturday, the Islamic State group issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi postings online. The report could not be independently confirmed. The Islamic State also claimed responsibility for the killing of an Italian aid worker last week in Bangladesh’s capital.
“Oh, it’s absolutely rubbish, there is no IS in the country, no way,” Bangladeshi Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said. “Why would IS do this here? These are incidents for creating instability in the country.”
“The claims are fishy and we are examining,” he said.

Khan’s view was echoed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also dismissed the Islamic State’s claims.
“Someone will post something online ... why should we accept that unless we prove that? We cannot accept that,” she said.
Following the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the September 28 killing of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella, who was gunned down by motorbike-riding assailants in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s government said there was no evidence that the extremist group was involved and called it an “isolated incident.”
Hasina blamed the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its key ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, for the attacks, accusing the two groups of trying to destabilise the country.

She said the two killings were similar and that the same people were likely behind both of them.
“Our intelligence is working on that,” Hasina said, adding that her administration would “definitely” capture and try those behind the attacks.
Saturday’s attack took place in Mahiganj village in Rangpur district. Local residents reported that two assailants shot three times at Hoshi, said Rezaul Karim, a police official. A third man waited for the pair on a motorbike, and the three then fled together on the bike.
Police have filed a murder case, accusing three unnamed people in the shooting, Karim said.

Karim said Hoshi had started a grass farm in Rangpur, which is about 300 kilometers north of Dhaka. Japanese media reported that Hoshi was 66.
An official from the Japanese foreign ministry’s anti-terrorism department said in Tokyo that in light of the Islamic State group’s claim of responsibility, Japanese officials were investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.
The ministry issued a statement urging Japanese to use caution overseas, particularly in Bangladesh and other predominantly Muslim nations, “in order not to be embroiled in kidnappings, threats, terrorist attacks and other unanticipated events.”
Bangladesh has been struggling in recent months with a rise in violence claimed by hard-line Islamic groups, banning several that have been blamed for killing four bloggers this year.
 


'It’s absolutely rubbish': Bangladesh rejects IS claim of killing Japanese man, a week after Italian was gunned down in cold blood

66-year-old Japanese citizen Hoshi Kunio was riding in a rickshaw when he was shot dead by three unidentified  attackers riding a motorbike in the town of Kaunia in Rangpur district.  Photo: SCMP Picture


Bangladeshi policemen inspect the site where Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi was shot dead by unidentified assailants.  Photo: Xinhua

Japanese Embassy officials arrive in the northern Bangladesh district of Rangpur after the death of Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi. Photo: AFP

Journalists take photographs of the body of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella who was gunned down by unidentified assailants.  Photo: AP

Elderly Japanese man slain in drive-by shooting in Bangladesh, 2nd killing of a foreign national in a week

The 66-year-old was riding in a rickshaw when he was shot dead in Kaunia town, police said. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Evidence markers placed around the body of Japanese national Kunio Hoshi shot and killed in Rangpur district. Photo: APTN

Bangladesh is said to be facing a rising tide of extremism. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Embassies on terror alert and international schools shut after ‘Islamic State attack’ in Bangladesh

Members of Bangladeshi police stand by the site where Italian citizen Cesare Tavella was gunned down, in an attack claimed by Islamic State. Photo: AP

The body of Tavella Cesare, a 50-year-old Italian aid worker, lies at the morgue after the post-mortem in Dhaka. Photo: EPA

Islamic State pamphlets have been distributed in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. Photo: AFP

Islamic State shoot dead Italian in Bangladesh capital, the group’s first attack in country

Journalists take photographs of the body of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella, who was gunned down in attack claimed by Islanic State in Dhaka. Photo: AP

A Pakistani man displays a pamphlet, allegedly distributed by the Islamic State in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar. Photo: AFP

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