Police continue questioning six people over Japanese’s murder; body kept in mortuary

The body of Kunio Hoshi has been kept at Rangpur Medical College Hospital after autopsy, officials say, as police continue to question six detainees for information about the Japanese national’s murder.

Ashik Hossainand Shahjada Mia Azad, from Rangpurbdnews24.com
Published : 4 Oct 2015, 04:44 PM
Updated : 4 Oct 2015, 07:05 PM

They have also started a case accusing three unidentified men for the killing.
 
The autopsy was conducted on Sunday morning under the supervision of a three-member medical board.
 
RMCH forensic department chief Rafiqul Islam told reporters that Kunio was shot from close range.
 
“Our primary assessment is that he died from excessive bleeding. But you’ll have to wait for the autopsy report for details,” he said.
 
RMCH Director Dr SM Barkat Ullah told reporters, “No decision has been made regarding handing over of the Japanese national’s body. That’s why it is currently kept in the mortuary.”
 
Hoshi was gunned down in Rangpur’s Kaunia Upazila on Saturday morning, five days after the almost similar murder of Italian aid worker Cesare Tavella in Dhaka’s Gulshan.
 
Islamic State has reportedly claimed responsibility for murdering both foreigners and threatened more attacks.
 
But the government has ruled out the presence of the militant group in Bangladesh.
 
Kunio was on his way to his grass farm at Kaunia's Alutari village when three masked men riding a motorcycle shot him thrice from close range and fled, police said quoting locals.
 
The 66-year-old died on his way to the hospital.
 
A delegation from the Japanese embassy in Dhaka visited the hospital Sunday morning before the autopsy.
 
They also visited the area at Alutari village where Kunio was attacked.
 

Rangpur’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Abdur Razzak told bdnews24.com they were still questioning the six people detained so far at his office.

None of them, however, was named in the case filed at Kaunia Police Station early on Sunday, said Additional Superintendent of Police Saifur Rahman.
 
Those detained were Zakaria Bala, 58, his brother-in-law ‘Hira’, 48, and witnesses rickshaw-puller Monnaf Ali and Murad Hossain.
 
Kunio lived alone as a tenant at Bala’s house at Munshiparha and Murad’s home is near the spot of the murder.
 
The two others detained were BNP’s Rangpur Metropolitan unit Organising Secretary Anisur Rahman Laku and member Rashedun Nabi Khan Biplob, their families alleged. 
 
But police are yet to confirm.
 
“We are interrogating those who have been detained. They will be accused in the case if we find proof of their involvement in the murder,” Additional SP Saifur Rahman told bdnews24.com.
 
Since Sunday morning, detectives spent busy time at the crime scene. The area was cordoned off since Saturday to preserve evidence, officials said.