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Afghans hold candlelight vigil for slain Japanese aid worker Tetsu Nakamura

The people of Afghanistan on Thursday held candlelight vigils in Kabul and Nangarhar as a tribute to Japanse physician and aid worker, Tetsu Nakamura who shot dead a day before. 

Nakamura was shot dead along with five Afghans including his bodyguards, driver and another passenger in an attack in Afghanistan on Wednesday. 

Nakamura, the head of Peace Japan Medical services – known as Peshawar-kai in Japanese – devoted 35 years of his life to healing the wounded in Afghanistan of which he became an honorary citizen last year in October. 

The doctor had opened a clinic in a remote village in Afghanistan in 1991, before which he treated leprosy in Pakistanis and sick Afghan refugees. The native Fukuoka had been heading the Nangarhar aid group since 2008. 

Nakamura’s death sparked intense backlash and outpouring grief from the people of the conflict-ridden region. The doctor’s death came a week after a grenade attack on a United Nations vehicle in Kabul increasing fears of the humanitarian workers in Afghanistan.

There was no claim for the responsibility of the attack for which the Taliban has denied responsibility claiming to have “good relations” with organisations that “contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan.”

The police have launched a search operation to arrest the gunmen who fled the scene said officials who claimed to believe that the doctor was targeted for his work. 

“Dr Nakamura has been doing great work in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, especially in irrigation and agriculture,” the official said.

Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday said he was “shocked” at the aid worker’s death who risked his life to do “various work” for which the people of Afghanistan were thankful. 

“I am shocked that he had to die in this way,” Abe told reporters in a news conference in Tokyo.

“He risked his life in a dangerous environment to do various work, and the people of Afghanistan were very grateful to him,” he added.

Source: Thanks WIONews.com