For the second time in a week, the Bangladeshi government yesterday played down a claim by the Islamic State (IS) group that it was responsible for gunning down a foreigner in the South Asian nation.
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 militant 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 Minister of Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters.
“Why would IS do this here? These are incidents for creating instability in the country,” Khan said.
“The claims are fishy and we are examining,” he said.
Following the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility for the killing of Tavella, who was gunned down by motorbike-riding assailants in Dhaka, the government said there was no evidence that the Muslim group was involved and called it an “isolated incident.”
Saturday’s attack took place in the village of Mahiganj in the Rangpur area. Residents reported that two assailants shot at Hoshi three times, police official Rezaul Karim said. 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 yesterday.
Karim said Hoshi had started a grass farm in Rangpur, which is about 300km north of Dhaka.
Japanese media reported that Hoshi was 66.
An official from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ antiterrorism department yesterday said in Tokyo that in light of the Islamic State’s claim of responsibility, Japanese officials were investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing ministry rules.
The ministry issued a statement urging Japanese to be cautious overseas, particularly in Bangladesh and other Muslim nations, “in order not to be embroiled in kidnappings, threats, terrorist attacks and other unanticipated events.”
Bangladesh, where most of the population is Muslim, has been struggling in recent months with a rise in violence claimed by Muslim groups.
The nation banned several that have been blamed for killing four bloggers this year.
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