For the fifth day yesterday, the question of what will become of Hoshi Kunio’s mortal remains has been asked and left unanswered.
Part of the reason is that the Japanese Embassy has not yet announced what it intends to do about the remains of the Japanese national.
A four-member Japanese investigative team visited the morgue on Wednesday night and examined the body for three hours, but they left the morgue without taking the body or making any final decision.
The team met Rangpur Superintendent of Police Abdur Razzak, who confirmed that the meeting had taken place but declined to comment on what was discussed.
A phone call from the Japanese Embassy to the Rangpur City administration yesterday seemed to suggest that Bangladesh may become Hoshi’s final resting place.
The first secretary of the Japanese Embassy phoned Rangpur city Mayor Sarfuddin Jhantu yesterday morning and asked him whether it was possible for Hoshi to be buried in the northern city.
The mayor told the Dhaka Tribune that if Hoshi’s conversion papers were produced and the burial expenses borne by either the embassy or Hoshi’s local associates, then he could be buried in the city graveyard.
The mayor said Munshibari residents had verified Hoshi’s religious conversion.
Rangpur district Deputy Commissioner Shahidul Islam said he had not received any paperwork regarding Hoshi’s burial, but a police source said Hoshi might be buried in Rangpur today.
Hoshi Kunio’s body has been in the Rangpur Medical College morgue since his murder on October 3, five days after another foreign national, Italian Cesare Tavella, was murdered in Dhaka.
