Islamic State claims responsibility for killing Japanese national in Bangladesh

Islamic State claimed responsibility for shooting a Japanese man in Bangladesh on Saturday, the second foreign national it says it has killed there within a week, and threatened more such attacks.

Police said they had detained four suspects in connection with the shooting of Kunio Hoshi, 66, at Kaunia Upazila's Alutari village in Rangpur, 335 km (210 miles) north of capital Dhaka.

The killing bore some similarities to the gunning down on Sep 28 of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella.

One of the four detainees was a rickshaw puller who was taking Kunio to his farm in that village and another was the owner of a residence near where the attack took place, police said.
 
"This (Kunio's) killing was also carried out by three masked men who came by motorcycle and used a pistol, so the motives may be same," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told Reuters, before the claim of responsibility.

Islamic State had also claimed responsibility for killing Tavella, its first such claim in the country.

Attacks on foreigners are rare in Bangladesh. But it has seen a rising tide of Islamist violence over the past year, in which four online critics of religious militancy were hacked to death, among them a US citizen of Bangladeshi origin.
 
On Saturday, Islamic State warned of more attacks.
 
"There will continue to be a series of ongoing security operations against nationals of crusader coalition countries, they will not have safety or a livelihood in Muslim lands," the militant group said in a statement posted on their official Twitter account.

Kunio Hoshi

A while after the Twit, SITE Intelligence Group, a jihadist threat-monitoring portal, on its website also reported that the Islamic State claimed responsibility for Kunio’s murder.

It ran the story of the IS claim with a picture of the flag of the Islamist militant group.
 
Western embassies, the Japanese and South Korean embassies have all issues various warnings for diplomats and citizens to be extra vigilant about their personal security.
 
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia Bernicat said in a statement that she was saddened by the latest killing.
 
"I urge the government of Bangladesh to investigate every aspect of this crime and to bring the perpetrators to justice as soon as possible,‎" she said.

Security will be increased at foreign diplomats' and foreign nationals' homes and workplaces, a high-level meeting decided on Saturday, Inspector General of Police AKM Shahidul Hoque said.