NEW DELHI: A suspected member of a banned Islamist group has confessed he fatally shot a Japanese agriculture researcher in northern Bangladesh in October, police said Tuesday.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Humayun Kabir told a news conference that Masud Rana, believed to be a member of Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, told a magistrate he shot Kunio Hoshi in Rangpur district.

Hoshi was killed on Oct. 3, less than a week after an Italian aid worker was shot dead in the capital, Dhaka.

The Daesh group claimed responsibility for the killing, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist groups. However, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina rejected the claim and investigators focused on local extremist groups, including Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh.

Kabir said Rana confessed to Magistrate Shafiul Alam on Monday that he and his accomplices attacked Hoshi and killed him. Three assailants on a motorbike took part in the killing.

It was not immediately clear when Rana was arrested. Kabir said the suspect had fled earlier and was detained when he recently returned home.

“We did not disclose details earlier for the sake of the investigation,” Kabir said. He said Rana was a regional commander of the group and previously served a jail term because of his involvement with it.

Kabir said six people have been detained, including Rana, for alleged involvement in the killing.

There is concern that radicalization is on the rise in Muslim-majority Bangladesh after four secular bloggers, two foreigners and a publisher were killed, allegedly by Islamist radical groups, since February this year.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its Islamist ally Jamaat-e-Islami, saying they were attempting to create chaos in the country for political gain. Both parties have denied the allegation.