Dec 10 (Japan Today) - Afghan police said Monday they have detained a total of six men in connection with the shooting death last week of a Japanese doctor who was a well-known aid worker in the central Asian country.
Tetsu Nakamura, local representative of Japanese aid group Peshawar-kai, and his staff were traveling in two vehicles when he was gunned down in an ambush Wednesday in the eastern province of Nangarhar, according to Afghan authorities and group members.
Seven to eight assailants -- with three armed with automatic rifles and other firearms -- were involved in the killing of Nakamura, 73, who was shot at close range with five bullets of a special kind not commonly seen in Afghanistan, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.
It appears the attack was planned for some time, possibly a year or two, a ministry official said.
Nakamura was in the first of two vehicles with a driver and a bodyguard when assailants in another car rammed into the side of his vehicle, forcing it to stop, according to the ministry and Peshawar-kai, a nongovernmental organization based in Fukuoka, southwestern Japan.
His car was being followed by a security vehicle carrying four people including local staff of the NGO.
Other assailants joined in the shooting from another car that came up from behind the security vehicle, the ministry said.
