Islamic State claims responsibility for second attack in Bangladesh
Date October 4, 2015 - 4:11AM
Serajul Quadir
The site where Japanese Kunio Hoshi was killed in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh on Saturday. Photo: Ripon Islam
Dhaka: Islamic State has used its official Twitter account to claim responsibility for the shooting death of a Japanese man in Bangladesh on Saturday.
Kunio Hoshi, 65, a Japanese citizen who was born in Bangladesh, was shot in Kownia in Rangpur district, 335 kilometres north of the capital, Dhaka, and died on the way to hospital, police said.
The attack bore similarities to the shooting death last week of Cesare Tavella, an Italian working in Bangladesh. Islamic State also said it was behind that attack.
Evidence markers are used where Japanese national Kunio Hoshi was shot and killed.
"This killing was also carried by three masked men who came by motorcycle and used a pistol, so the motives may be same," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters after the second attack on Saturday.
Police said they had detained four people in connection with the second shooting.
"We take both the killings seriously and hopefully will be able to identify the killers along with their motives," Mr Asaduzzaman said.
Attacks on foreigners are rare in Bangladesh, but it has seen a rising tide of Islamist violence over the past year, with four online critics of religious militancy hacked to death, among them a US citizen.
After Mr Tavella's death, concerns that foreigners might be targeted prompted Western embassies to curtail the movements of diplomats in Bangladesh.
Police said one of the four detained people was a rickshaw puller and another is owner of a residence close to where the attack took place.
The Japan Embassy in Bangladesh has issued an alert for Japanese citizens in Bangladesh.
"We have encouraged them to exercise a maximum level of vigilance," an embassy official said.
Reuters
