Dhaka denies IS behind Japanese kill

DHAKA: For the second time in a week, Bangladesh’s government yesterday rejected a claim by the Islamic State (IS) 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 IS issued a statement admitting responsibility for the attack, according to the Site Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi postings online. The report could not be independently confirmed. The IS also said it killed 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 yesterday. “Why would the IS do this here? These are incidents for creating instability in the country.”

“The claims are fishy and we are examining [them],” he said.

Mr Khan’s view was echoed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who also dismissed the claims of the IS.

“Someone will post something online ... why should we accept that unless we prove that? We cannot accept that,” she told reporters.

Following the IS’ admission of responsibility for the Sept 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”.

Ms Hasina yesterday 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 probably behind both of them.

“Our intelligence is working on that,” Ms Hasina said, adding that her administration would “definitely” capture and try those behind the attacks.

The attack took place in Mahiganj village in Rangpur district. 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 fled together on the bike.

Police have filed a murder case, accusing three unnamed people in the shooting, Mr Karim said yesterday. Mr 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 foreign ministry’s anti-terrorism department said in Tokyo that in light of the IS admission 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 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 recently struggled with a rise in violence claimed by hard-line Islamic groups, banning several that were blamed for killing four bloggers this year.