Japanese national Kunio Hoshi buried in Rangpur

Japanese national Kunio Hoshi has been buried at a graveyard in Rangpur, 10 days after being gunned down in a village near the northern city.

Rangpur Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 13 Oct 2015, 06:51 AM
Updated : 15 Oct 2015, 07:50 AM

He was buried at the city’s Munshiparha graveyard around 4am on Tuesday, District Magistrate Priyo Shindu Talukder told bdnews24.com.

The local administration said his funeral and burial were completed in keeping with the Japanese embassy’s request.

“He had converted to Islam. That’s why the Japanese embassy requested the home ministry to bury him in Rangpur,” Deputy Commissioner Rahat Anwar told bdnews24.com.

The burial process was initiated after the home ministry’s instruction on Monday, he added.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal confirmed that to bdnews24.com.

The local administration, however, maintained absolute secrecy until Tuesday noon over the burial.

As soon as the news of removing Hoshi’s body from the Rangpur Medical College and Hospital (RMCH) mortuary spread around 3am, local journalists contacted the hospital authorities, police and the administration, but officials declined to comment.

Around 11am, Rangpur Mayor Sarfuddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com that the district administration completed the formalities with him around 2am.

He claimed that he had ‘no knowledge’ what happened afterwards.

At 12 pm, Police’s Rangpur Range Deputy Inspector General Humayun Kabir claimed that he had no information on the matter.

But police were there during the whole process; starting from taking the body from the mortuary until the burial at Munshiparha graveyard.

Authorities only started to speak up when the additional district magistrate confirmed the burial.

Kunio had come to Bangladesh in May this year. He used to live in a rented house in the town’s Munshiparha.

He knew two brothers living in Japan, whose family lived in Rangpur and had helped Hoshi set up a grass farm.

Munshiparha residents claimed that he had converted to Islam three months ago.

On the morning of Oct 3, Hoshi was shot dead by three masked men riding on a motorbike, at Alurtila village while he was on the way to the farm like every other day.

His body was kept at the RMCH mortuary since then.

On Oct 8, the Rangpur mayor received a phone call from the Japanese embassy’s first secretary checking whether it was possible to bury Hoshi in Rangpur.

On Monday, the home ministry instructed the local administration to initiate the process.

After that, the city mayor’s clearance was obtained and the body was brought out from the mortuary.

“The funeral and burial was held according to Islamic rituals,” said Additional Magistrate Talukder.

He said representatives from the district administration, police and the mayor’s office were present during the whole process.

Police had so far, detained six people over the killing, but shown two people arrested — the brother-in-law of Hoshi’s landlord and a local BNP leader.

Law enforcers are yet to find a concrete lead as to who may have killed Hoshi and what was the motive.