Japanese Man shot dead days after 'ISIS attack'

A Japanese citizen was shot dead by gunmen in a northern
Bangladesh town on Saturday, 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 at about 10:30 am local time
(0430 GMT).
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,” deputy
police chief of Rangpur, Saifur Rahman, told
AFP.
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,” Asaduzzaman
Khan Kamal, the Home Minister, told reporters.
Kunio was a frequent visitor to Bangladesh and
worked on a farming project in Rangpur, about
300 kilometres (180 miles) 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 the Kaunia town to
grow grass for cattle.
A Japanese embassy spokesman in Dhaka told
AFP that 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,”
Takeshi Matsunaga told AFP.
His body was taken to Rangpur Medical College
morgue. Police have not yet identified any
motive for the murder.
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 the Islamic State group, describing it
as an “isolated incident”.
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.
Bangladesh prides itself on being a mainly
moderate Muslim country. But the gruesome
killings of a series of atheist bloggers this year
have rocked the nation and sparked a
crackdown on local hardline Islamist groups.