Five members of banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh were awarded death penalty for the killing of Japanese national Kunio Hoshi in Kaunia upazila of Rangpur in 2015.
A Rangpur court also acquitted two accused in the case as allegations brought against them were not proved.
Two of three assailants arriving on a motorcycle shot Kunio Hoshi three times while he was going by a rickshaw to his grass farm at Alutari on the morning of October 3.
The 66-year-old had been living in the country for a year renting a house at Munshipara area in Rangpur city.
Charges were framed against eight members of JMB in mid-November 2016. Five of them are in a Rangpur jail, two died in “gunfights” with law enforcers and the last is yet to be arrested.
The arrestees are Masud Rana, 21, alias Mamun alias Montri and Ihsak Ali, 25, of Poshua Tangailpara village under Pirgachha upazila; Liton Mia, 23, alias Rafiq of Gabtoli area under Bogra sadar upazila; Abu Sayeed, 28, of Kaliganj Bazar under Pirgachha upazila and Shakhawat Hossain, 32, of Haldiachar in Gaibandha’s Saghata upazila.
Nazrul Islam alias Bike Nazrul of Panchagarh and Saddam Hossain of Kurigram were killed in Rajshahi and Dhaka on August 1, 2016 and January 5 this year respectively.
Ansar Ullah Ansari is yet to be arrested, said Public Prosecutor Rathish Chandra Bhowmik.
Fifty six witnesses have testified. Prosecution and defence lawyers completed placing arguments before Special Judge’s Court of Noresh Chandra Sarkar yesterday afternoon.
Source: The Daily Star
