Police officials escort some of the accused in the murder of Japanese woman Hiroe Miyata in Dhaka yesterday.

AFP
Dhaka
Bangladesh police have arrested five men over the suspected murder of a Japanese businesswoman who is believed to have been buried in a graveyard under a false name, an officer said yesterday.
Police suspect Hiroe Miyata, 60, who lived in Bangladesh, was interred last month in the capital Dhaka under a fake identity after officers examined records at the Muslim graveyard.
Authorities began investigating after the woman’s mother in Japan reported her missing to the Japanese embassy in Dhaka on November 19.
“We are treating this as a murder” investigation pending a post-mortem to determine cause of death, one police officer said on condition of anonymity.
Five men who worked closely with Miyata were arrested late on Monday and remanded in custody by a Dhaka court for further questioning, the officer said.
Another police official said the woman had been living and working in Dhaka for the last 10 years.
“She died in mysterious circumstances,” the official, who also declined to be named because of the preliminary nature of the case, said, adding the woman was buried under a Muslim name.
“We’ve sought a court order to exhume the body and determine the
reason for her death.”
A Japanese embassy spokesman declined to comment.
Bangladesh is reeling after the murders of a Japanese farmer and an Italian aid worker in separate incidents in recent months, attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.
An Italian priest was shot and
seriously injured last week.
The Bangladesh government says the jihadist group has no presence in the Muslim-majority country, while police suspect a local banned Islamist outfit was responsible.
Suspected IS militants indicted: A Dhaka court has indicted a suspected co-ordinator of the Bangladesh chapter of the Islamic State (IS) and three other members of the organisation, the media reported yesterday.
The prosecutor said the court on Monday fixed February 25, next year, for deposition by witnesses, bdnews24 reported.
Those indicted are IS “coordinator” Shakhawatul Kabir, and three suspected members of the outfit, Anowar Hossain Baten, Rabiul Islam and Nazrul Islam.
All but Kabir denounced the charges and sought acquittal.
Police pressed charges in court against them on May 15 and described Kabir as the “co-ordinator of the Bangladesh chapter” of the Middle East-based terror group.
The four were arrested on January 18 when Kabir was holding a meeting to recruit members for IS.
Police said they had seized a large number of IS leaflets and a laptop
containing several terror-linked videos.