Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
Investigators on Saturday said that conspiracy of foreigners’ killings might be hatched from outside the country and the possibility of foreign hands in it cannot be ruled out.
Earlier in the morning, a Japanese national Kunio Hoshi, 66, was shot dead at Alutory village of Kawnia upazila of Rangpur, five days into the killing of Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhaka’s diplomatic zone.
“Attacks on foreigners in Bangladesh are rare. But the two such incidents took place within a week, reflecting a new level of functioning by foreign terrorist groups,” a senior Detective Branch (DB) official told The New Nation on Saturday on condition of anonymity.
He added: “They may be staging misadventure on Bangladesh soil in a planned way to destabilize the government.”
The DB official further said that the nature of the murders seems to be pre-planned and the assailants used motorbikes while opening gunshots to kill the foreign nationals.
When asked, he said, “Investigations are still on… we are trying to find out whether there was any foreign hand behind the killings.”
“The fact is that there is a foreign hand. The murder of foreign nationals has reflected that foreign countries are poking their noses in Bangladesh affairs. But we are yet to ascertain which foreign hands are behind the killings,” said a high official of another intelligent agency.
Replying to a question, he said, “We got an idea from the nature of the killings and who could be behind it. It would be ascertained only after a proper probe.”
“The concern agencies will work to find out whether there was any link between the killings of two foreigners within a week,” Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told The New Nation yesterday.
He said, the government had taken both the killings seriously and whoever is involved with the killings will be identified and brought to book.
Meanwhile, the government has decided to strengthen security at workplaces and residences of foreign diplomats and nationals in Bangladesh following the killing of two foreigners here.
AKM Shahidul Hoque, Inspector General of Police (IGP), announced this at a meeting held in the police headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday.
The meeting was attended by senior police officials.
