killing
Blaze kills firefighter’s 10 relatives, 3 of them children
Fire tore quickly through a house in northeastern Pennsylvania early Friday morning, killing seven adults and three children and horrifying a volunteer firefighter who arrived to battle the blaze only to discover the victims were his own family, authorities said.
The children who died were ages 5, 6 and 7, Pennsylvania State Police said in a news release, while the seven adults ranged from their late teens to a 79-year-old man. Autopsies were planned for this weekend.
Harold Baker, a volunteer firefighter in the town of Nescopeck, said the 10 victims included his son, daughter, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, three grandchildren and two other relatives. He said his two children and the other young victims were visiting their aunt and uncle’s home for swimming and other summertime fun.
He said 13 dogs were also in the two-story home, but didn’t say if he knew whether any survived.
“All I wanted to do was go in there and get to these people, my family. That’s all that I was thinking about, getting in to them,” Baker said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.
Baker grabbed a hose and air pack, and started pouring water on the fire, desperate to make his way inside and calling out to his son. His chief realized whose house it was, and fellow firefighters escorted Baker back to the firehouse.
A preliminary investigation suggests the fire broke out on the front porch at around 2:30 a.m., Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said Friday evening.
“The information I have is that the fire started and progressed very quickly, making it very difficult to get out,” he said.
Three people were able to escape the blaze, Sanguedolce said. Four state police fire marshals are involved in the investigation, although it won’t be classified as a criminal probe unless they determine the fire was intentionally set, he said.
Read: Wildfires in West explode in size amid hot, windy conditions
Nescopeck is a small town on the Susquehanna River, about 20 miles southwest of Wilkes-Barre. The house was on a residential street of largely owner-occupied, single family homes.
Baker said the address initially given for the call was a neighboring house. He realized it was his family members’ residence as the firetruck approached. He said his unit was the first on scene, and the house was already engulfed in flames.
“There wasn’t nothing we could’ve done to get in there. We tried, but we couldn’t get in,” said Baker, 57, who’s been a firefighter for 40 years.
His son, 19-year-old Dale Baker, had followed both of his parents into the fire service, joining when he was 16.
“He said it all his life, he was just going to be like his dad,” Harold Baker said.
Heidi Knorr, the Nescopeck Volunteer Fire Company secretary, called Dale Baker “such a fun-loving soul. He just loved life.”
The family was “always willing to help lend a hand to anyone in need,” Knorr said. Dale’s mother was not among the dead listed by Harold Baker.
Mike Swank, who lives two doors away across the street, said he happened to be awake early Friday and looked outside after hearing a sharp explosion. He saw the porch “was really going” and went outside, using another neighbor’s hose to keep the blaze from spreading to a garage.
“I seen two guys outside and they were in various states of hysteria,” Swank told the AP by phone.
One man was on a cellphone, “and I’m trying to ask him if everybody’s out,” he said. “The other guy was out in the street and he was just running around in circles.”
Swank said he wasn’t able to get information from them. A fence prevented him from getting to the back of the property.
Baker said 14 people were living in the home. One was out delivering newspapers, and three others escaped.
Swank said the family had moved in a few months ago under what he understood to be a rent-to-own agreement, and spent a lot of time on the cluttered front porch.
“It was so quick and so much smoke, you just knew nobody was going to make it out,” Swank said. He saw cadaver dogs being used to search the scene until the bodies were located.
2 to die, 2 get life term jail for killing businessperson in Ctg
A Chattogram court on Sunday sentenced two people to death and two others to life term imprisonment for killing a businessperson in 2016.
Chattogram Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court-4 Judge Shariful Bhuiya handed down the punishment.
The condemned convicts are Kamal Hossain and Russel while the lifers are Surma Akter and Lilu Akter Ria. Of them, Lilu was tried in absentia.
Also read: 350 sued over Thakurgaon UP polls violence that left infant dead
According to the prosecution, Jalal Uddin Sagar, of Double Mooring area, was found dead, with his hands and legs tied up, from the north gate of CDA Residential area on October 20, 2016.
Imaz Uddin lodged a complaint with Double Mooring Police. Police registered an FIR after getting the complaint.
On May 28, 2017, police submitted chargesheet against four people.
Also read: Regent's Shahed gets bail in Tk2.75 crore embezzlement case
Man smashes head of infant girl in Khulna
A man smashed the head of his infant girl on the floor of their house in a fit of rage during a quarrel with his family members in Dumuria upazila of Khulna on Thursday morning, police said.
The deceased was identified as Tamima, daughter of Md Ujjal of Cluster village of the upazila. The baby was just two-and-a-half months-old.
Read:2 more held over torturing woman in Khulna
Sheikh Koni Mia, officer-in-charge of Dumuria police station, said Ujjal had an altercation with his family members while the baby was in his lap. At one stage, he threw the baby to the ground out of anger, leaving her seriously injured.
The family members immediately rushed the baby to Upazila Health Complex and later to Khulna Medical College and Hospital (KMCH), where she was declared dead on arrival, said the OC.
"We have detained the man. Legal steps are underway in this regard,” he added.
‘I can’t forget her'- Myanmar’s soldiers admit atrocities
Soldiers in the Myanmar military have admitted to killing, torturing and raping civilians in exclusive interviews with the BBC. For the first time they have given detailed accounts of widespread human rights abuses they say they were ordered to conduct.
"They ordered me to torture, loot and kill innocent people."
Maung Oo says he thought he had been recruited to the military as a guard.
But he was part of a battalion who killed civilians hiding in a monastery in May 2022, reports BBC.
"We were ordered to round up all the men and shoot them dead," he says. "The saddest thing was we had to kill elderly people and a woman."
The testimony of six soldiers, including a corporal, plus some of their victims provides a rare insight of a military desperate to cling to power. All of the Myanmar names in this report have been changed to protect their identities.
The soldiers, who recently defected, are under the protection of a local unit of the People's Defence Force (PDF), a loose network of civilian militia groups fighting to restore democracy.
The military seized power from the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup last year. It is now trying to crush the armed civilian uprising.
On 20 December last year, three helicopters circled Yae Myet village in central Myanmar, dropping soldiers with orders to open fire.
At least five different people, speaking independently from each other, told the BBC what happened.
They say the army entered in three separate groups, shooting at men, women and children indiscriminately.
"The order was to shoot anything you see," says Corporal Aung from an undisclosed location in a remote part of Myanmar's jungle.
Read: Genocide against Rohingya: Bangladesh welcomes ICJ's rejection of Myanmar claims
He says some people hid in what they thought was a safe place, but as the soldiers closed in they "started to run and we shot at them".
Cpl Aung admits his unit shot and buried five men.
"We also had an order to set fire to every large and decent house in the village," he says.
The soldiers paraded around the village torching houses, shouting, "Burn! burn!"
Cpl Aung set fire to four buildings. Those interviewed say about 60 houses were burnt, leaving much of the village in ashes.
Most of the villagers had fled, but not everyone. One home in the centre of the village was inhabited.
Thiha says he had joined the military just five months before the raid. Like many others, he was recruited from the community and says he was untrained. These recruits are locally referred to as Anghar-Sit-Thar or "hired soldiers".
At the time he was paid a decent salary of 200,000 Myanmar Khat (approximately 100 USD) a month. He remembers what happened at that house vividly.
He saw a teenage girl trapped behind iron bars in a house they were about to burn down.
"I can't forget her shouting, I can still hear it in my ears and remember it in my heart," he says.
When he told his captain, he replied, "I told you to kill everyone we see". So Thiha shot a flare into the room.
Cpl Aung was also there and heard her cries as she was burnt alive.
Read: Myanmar denies genocide, again describes Rohingyas as 'Bengali community'
"It was heartbreaking to hear. We heard her voice repeatedly for about 15 minutes while the house was on fire," he recalls.
The BBC tracked down the girl's family, who spoke in front of the charred remains of their home.
Her relative U Myint said the girl had a mental health condition and had been left in her home while her parents went to work.
"She tried to escape but they stopped her and let her burn," he says.
She was not the only young woman to suffer at the hands of these soldiers.
Thiha says he joined the military for the money but was shocked by what he was forced to do and the atrocities he witnessed.
He speaks about a group of young women they arrested in Yae Myet.
The officer handed them to his subordinates and said, "Do as you wish," he recounts. He said they raped the girls but he was not involved. We tracked down two of these girls.
Pa Pa and Khin Htwe say they met the soldiers on the road as they tried to run away. They were not from Yae Myet, they had been visiting a tailor there.
Despite their insistence that they were not PDF fighters or even from the village, they were imprisoned in a local school for three nights. Each night, they were repeatedly sexually abused by their intoxicated captors, they say. "They blindfolded my face with a sarong and pushed me down, they took off my clothes and raped me," Pa Pa says. "I shouted as they raped me."
She pleaded with the soldiers to stop but they beat her round the head and threatened her at gunpoint.
"We had to take it without resisting because we were scared that we would be killed," says her sister Khin Htwe, trembling as she speaks.
The girls were too scared to get a proper look at their abusers but say they remember seeing some in plain clothes and some wearing military uniforms.
"When they caught young women," remembers the soldier Thiha, "they would say, 'this is because you support the PDF' as they (raped) the girls."
Read: UN court rejects Myanmar claims, will hear Rohingya case
At least 10 people died in the violence in Yae Myet and eight girls were reportedly raped over the three-day period.
The brutal killings which hired soldier Maung Oo took part in occurred on 2 May 2022 in Ohake pho village, also in Sagaing region.
His account of members from his 33rd Division (Light Infantry Division 33) rounding up and shooting people in a monastery matches witness testimonies and disturbing video the BBC obtained from the immediate aftermath of the attack.
The video shows nine dead bodies lined up including a woman and a grey-haired man lying next to each other. They are all wearing sarongs and t-shirts.
Signs in the footage indicate that they were shot from behind and at close range.
We also spoke to villagers who witnessed this atrocity. They identified the young woman in the video lined up next to the elderly man. She was called Ma Moe Moe, and was carrying her child and a bag containing pieces of gold. She pleaded with the soldiers not to take her things.
"Despite the child she was carrying, they looted her belongings and shot her to death. They also lined up (the men) and shot them one by one," says Hla Hla, who was at the scene but was spared.
The child survived and is now being cared for by relatives.
Hla Hla says she heard soldiers boasting on the phone that they had killed eight or nine people, that it was "delicious" to kill people and describing it as "their most successful day yet".
She says they left the village chanting "Victory! Victory!"
Another woman saw her husband killed. "They shot him in the thigh, then they asked him to lie face down and shot his buttock. Finally they shot his head," she says.
She insists he was not a member of the PDF. "He was really a toddy palm worker who earned his living in a traditional way. I have a son and a daughter and I don't know how to continue living."
Maung Oo says he regrets his actions. "So, I will tell you all," he says. "I want everyone to know so they can avoid falling into the same fate.
All of the six soldiers who spoke to the BBC admitted burning houses and villages across central Myanmar. This suggests it is an organised tactic to destroy any support for the resistance.
It comes as some say the military struggles to maintain its multi-front civil war.
Myanmar Witness - a group of open source researchers tracking human rights abuses - has verified more than 200 reports of villages being burnt in this way over the past 10 months.
They say the scale of these arson attacks is rapidly increasing, with at least 40 attacks in January and February, followed by at least 66 in March and April.
This is not the first time Myanmar's military has used a scorched earth policy. It was widely reported against the Rohingya people in 2017 in Rakhine state.
The country's mountainous ethnic regions have faced these kinds of assaults for many decades. Some of these ethnic fighters are now helping to train and arm the PDF in this current civil war against the military.
The culture of impunity in which soldiers are allowed to loot and kill at will, as described by the soldiers, has occurred for decades in Myanmar, Human Rights Watch says.
People are rarely held accountable for atrocities allegedly carried out by the military.
But Myanmar's military is increasingly having to hire soldiers and militias due to defections and killings by the PDF.
Some 10,000 people have defected from both the army and the police since the 2021 coup, according to a group called People's Embrace, formed by former military and police personnel.
"The military is struggling to maintain its multi-front civil war," says Michael Martin from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
"It's running into personnel problems both in the officer ranks and the enlisted ranks, it's taking heavy casualties, problems with recruitment, problems getting equipment and supplies and that's reflected by the fact that they seem to be losing territory or control of territory in various parts of the country."
Magway and Sagaing regions (where the above incidents happened) were one of the historic recruitment grounds for Myanmar's military.
But young people here are instead choosing to join the PDF groups.
Cpl Aung was clear about why he defected: "If I thought the military would win in the long term, I wouldn't have switched sides to the people."
He says soldiers do not dare to leave their base alone as they are worried they will be killed by the PDF.
"Wherever we go, we can only go in the form of a military column. No-one can say that we are dominating," he says.
We put the allegations in this investigation to General Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for Myanmar's military. In a statement, he denied that the army has been targeting civilians. He said both of the raids cited here were legitimate targets and those killed were "terrorists".
He denied the army has been burning villages and says that it is the PDFs who are carrying out arson attacks.
It is hard to say how and when this civil war might end but it seems likely that millions of Myanmar's civilians will be left traumatised.
And the longer it takes to find peace, the more women like rape victim Khin Htwe will be vulnerable to violence.
She says she no longer wanted to live after what had happened to her and considered taking her own life.
She has been unable to tell her fiance what happened to her.
Youth associated with journo Rubel killing held in Kushtia
Police arrested a youth associated with the killing of local journalist Hasibur Rahman Rubel from Rajarhat intersection area of Kushtia town on Wednesday night.
The arrestee is Imran Sheikh Emon, 32, son of Shamsul Alam Samu of Courtpara area of the town.
Emon used to be a leader of Kushtia town Jubo League’s (JL) past convening committee. He has four cases of arms, drugs, theft and fighting pending against him.
He was also arrested with arms and phensedyl by Rab previously.
Md Khairul Alam, Kushtia’s Superintendent of Police (SP), confirmed these matters at a press briefing at the SP’s office on Friday afternoon.
“Emon is directly involved in the killing of journalist Rubel. Besides, Kazi Sohan and Khondker Ashikur Rahman Jewel, who have been previously arrested by Rab, are also involved in the killing,” said Khairul.
Read: Prime accused in Cumilla journo murder case killed in 'gunfight’ with Rab
The SP asserted that Rubel wasn’t killed for doing journalism. He added that police will present Emon before the court and ask for a 10-day remand.
Rubel was working at his office around 9:00pm on July 3 and went to the Singer intersection area of Kushtia town upon receiving a phone call. His decomposed body was found by Pabna river police under Joduboyra bridge in Kushtia’s Kumarkhali upazila four days later.
Rubel’s uncle Mizanur Rahman filed a case with Kumarkhali police station in this regard the next day, based on which the arrests were made.
Hasibur Rahman Rubel was the Editor(Acting) of local daily ‘Kushtiar Khabar’ and the Kushtia Correspondent of national daily ‘Amader Notun Shomoy’. He was also the General Secretary of Kushtia Reporters’ Club.
BCL leader hacked to death in Cox's Bazar
A leader of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) was allegedly stabbed to death by miscreants in Sadar Upazila of Cox's Bazar in the early hours of Thursday.
The deceased was identified as Emon Hasan Mowla, joint general secretary of ward No.4 unit BCL and son of businessman Mohammad Hasan of North Tekpara.
Family members of the deceased said Emon went for a ride on his father's motorcycle at Siko Borof Kol point of the Bakkhali River in Peshkar neighborhood on Thursday morning.
At one stage, a group of assailants, including Abdullah Khan, Syed Akbar, Ramzan, Iman, Sunny and Farhad waylaid Emon and stabbed him indiscriminately, leaving him seriously injured.
Read: BCL leader stabbed dead in Cox’s Bazar
He was immediately rushed to Cox's Bazar Sadar Hospital where the doctors referred him to Chittagong Medical Hospital. He succumbed to his injuries around 3am while undergoing treatment there.
Police recovered the body after being informed, said Sheikh Munir-ul-Ghiyas, officer-in-charge of Cox's Bazar Sadar Model Police Station.
"Efforts are on to nab the culprits," added the OC.
6 people die after storm causes Montana highway pileup
Six people have died after a dust storm fueled by wind gusts topping 60 mph caused a pileup Friday evening on Interstate 90 in Montana, authorities said.
Twenty-one vehicles crashed and Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Jay Nelson said authorities believe the weather was the cause.
“It appears as though there was heavy winds, causing a dust storm with zero visibility,” he said.
While the highway patrol did not have an immediate count of the number of injuries, Nelson said additional ambulances had to be called in from Billings to help.
Gov. Greg Gianforte said on Twitter: “I’m deeply saddened by the news of a mass casualty crash near Hardin. Please join me in prayer to lift up the victims and their loved ones. We’re grateful to our first responders for their service.”
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The incident happened 3 miles (5 kilometers) west of Hardin. A video from The Billings Gazette showed hundreds of tractor-trailers, campers and cars backed up for miles along the two eastbound lanes of the interstate.
The dust storm’s roots can be traced back several hours, when storms popped up in central southern Montana between 1 and 2 p.m. and slowly began moving east, according to Nick Vertz, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Billings.
Those storms prompted a severe thunderstorm watch that covered Hardin and other parts of Montana from mid-afternoon until 9 p.m. Friday. Meteorologists forecasted the potential for isolated hail the size of a quarter, scattered wind gusts up to 75 mph (121 kph) and frequent lightning.
A so-called “outflow” — or a surge of wind that’s produced by storms but can travel faster than them — flew east/southeast about 30 miles (48 kilometers) ahead of the storms, Vertz said.
A 40 mph (64 kph) gust of wind was recorded at the nearby Big Horn County Airport at 4:15 p.m. The crash was reported to the highway patrol at 4:28 p.m.
By the airport weather station’s next reading at 4:35 p.m., the gusts had picked up to 62 mph (100 kph). Another reading 20 minutes later recorded a gust of 64 mph (103 kph).
The wind easily picked up dust — a product of recent temperatures into the 90s and triple digits over the last week — and reduced visibility to less than 1/4 mile (0.4 kilometers).
“If they looked up in the sky while they’re in Hardin, they probably didn’t see much of what you’d think of for a thunderstorm cloud, maybe not even much at all,” Vertz said. “It was just a surge of wind that kind of appeared out of nowhere.”
As first responders attempt to clear the wreckage, the meteorologist said they can expect to be safe from additional winds and thunderstorm activity.
“It should be a relatively clear, calm night for them,” he said.
35-yr-old stabbed to death in Dinajpur
A 35-year-old man was stabbed to death allegedly by a group of drug peddlers in the district's Hakimpur upazila on Friday night.
The deceased was identified as Bardin Islam Baten, a construction worker and son of Abu Taleb of Mathpara village.
Shariqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Hakimpur Police Station, said that Baten's younger brother Insan had been at loggerheads with a local drug peddler, Imon, over sharing profits from drug sales.
On Friday morning, Baten intervened and apparently ensured a patch-up between Insan and Imon. However, Imon was not satisfied with the settlement.
Read: Elderly man stabbed to death in Dhaka
The same night, Imon along with his two associates, waylaid Baten on a bike and stabbed him indiscriminately, leaving him injured. "He was taken to a local hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival," said the OC.
“Police are trying to arrest the culprits,” he added.
3 held over killing Jubo Dal leader in Jashore
Three people were arrested in a case filed over the murder of a Jubo Dal leader from Jashore town Thursday morning.
The detainees were Al Amin, Raihan, 25, and Icha Mir, 20, of the town.
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab-6) detained Al Amin this morning, said Rab-6 Jashore squad commander ASP Shafiqur Rahman.
Police arrested Raihan, prime accused in the case, and Icha Mir from the town in the morning, said Superintendent of Police (SP) Prolay Kumar at a press conference.
During primary interrogation, the arrestees confessed that there had been a dispute between local BNP leader Shamim Ahmed Manua and deceased Jubo Dal leader Badiuzzaman Dhani over establishing dominance. Dhani was also made an accused in the murder case of Manua's son-in-law Yasin following the dispute.
Read: 4 to die for killing schoolboy in N’ganj
Later, Manua’s nephew Raihan killed Dhani following the instruction of Manua, said SP Prolay.
On Tuesday noon, Dhani, 42, senior vice president of Jashore District Jubo Dal, was hacked to death allegedly by some miscreants in Jashore town.
Some miscreants hacked Dhani indiscriminately at Chopdar Para in Shankarpur around 12pm and fled the scene, leaving him seriously injured, said Tajul Islam, officer-in-charge (OC) of Kotwali police station.
Later, he was rushed to Jashore General Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries, he added.
Abe’s death raises security questions as Japan mourns
A top police official on Saturday acknowledged possible security lapses that allowed an assassin to fire his gun into former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe while he was addressing a campaign rally, raising questions how could the attacker get so close behind him.
Abe was shot in the western city of Nara on Friday and airlifted to a hospital but died of blood loss. Police arrested the attacker, a former member of Japan’s navy, at the scene. Police confiscated his homemade gun and several others were later found at his apartment.
The attacker, Tetsuya Yamagami, told investigators he acted because he believed rumors that Abe was connected to an organization that he resents, police said. Japanese media reported that the man had developed hatred toward a religious group that his mother was obsessed about and that caused his family financial problems. The reports did not specify the group.
On Saturday, a black hearse carrying Abe’s body and accompanied by his wife, Akie, arrived at his home in Tokyo’s upscale residential area of Shibuya. Many mourners, including top party officials, waited for his remains and lowered their heads as the vehicle passed.
Nara prefectural police chief Tomoaki Onizuka said Abe’s assassination was his “greatest regret” in a 27-year career.
“I cannot deny there were problems with our security,” Onizuka said. “Whether it was a setup, emergency response, or ability of individuals, we still have to find out. Overall, there was a problem and we will review it from every perspective.”
Abe’s assassination ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election shocked the nation and raised questions over whether security for the former prime minister was adequate.
Some observers who watched videos of the attack noted a lack of attention in the open space behind Abe as he spoke.
A former Kyoto prefectural police investigator, Fumikazu Higuchi, said the footage suggested security was sparse at the event and insufficient for a former prime minister.
“It is necessary to investigate why security allowed Yamagami to freely move and go behind Mr. Abe,” Higuchi told a Nippon TV talk show.
Experts also said Abe was more vulnerable standing on the ground level, instead of atop a campaign vehicle, which is usually the case but was reportedly unavailable due to his hastily arranged visit to Nara.
Read: Japan's ex-leader Shinzo Abe assassinated during a speech
“Looks like police were mainly focusing on frontward, while paying little attention to what’s behind Mr. Abe, and nobody stopped the suspect approaching him,” said Mitsuru Fukuda, a crisis management professor at Nihon University. “Clearly there were problems.”
Fukuda said that election campaigns provide a chance for voters and politicians to interact because “political terrorism” was extremely rare in postwar Japan. But Abe’s assassination could prompt stricter security at crowded events like campaigns, sports games and others.
During a parliamentary debate in 2015, Abe resisted suggestions by an opposition lawmaker to beef up his security, insisting that “Japan is a safe country.”
In videos circulating on social media, the 41-year-old Yamagami can be seen standing only a few meters (yards) behind Abe across a busy street, and continuously glancing around.
A few minutes after Abe stood at the podium and started his speech — as a local party candidate and their supporters stood and waved to the crowd — Yamagami can be seen taking his gun out of a bag, walking toward Abe and firing the first shot, which released a cloud of smoke, but the projectile apparently missed Abe.
As Abe turned to see where the noise came from, a second shot went off. That bullet apparently hit Abe’s left arm, missing a bulletproof briefcase raised by a security guard who stood behind him.
Abe fell to the ground, with his left arm tucked in as if to cover his chest. Campaign organizers shouted through loudspeakers asking for medical experts to provide first-aid to Abe. His heart and breathing had stopped by the time he was airlifted to a hospital, where he later pronounced dead.
Police on Saturday said autopsy results showed that a bullet that entered Abe’s upper left arm damaged arteries beneath both collar bones, causing fatal massive bleeding.
According to the Asahi newspaper, Yamagami was a contract worker at a warehouse in Kyoto, operating a forklift. He was described as a quiet person who did not mingle with colleagues. A next-door neighbor at his apartment told Asahi he never met Yamagami, though he recalled hearing noises like a saw being used several times late at night over the past month.
Read: Assassination of Japan’s Shinzo Abe stuns world leaders
Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, eight of then gang-related.
Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction. But his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.
Abe stepped down two years ago blaming a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he’d had since he was a teenager. He said he regretted leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution.
That ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese liberals. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.
Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability. Abe divided the public by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who early on had a frosty relationship with Abe, sent a condolence message to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Saturday, a day after most other world leaders issued their statements.
Xi credited Abe with making efforts to improve China-Japan relations and said he and Abe had reached an important understanding on building better ties, according to a statement posted on China’s Foreign Ministry website. He also told Kishida he is willing to work with him to continue to develop neighborly and cooperative relations.
Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military through security alliance with the United States and bigger role in international affairs.
He became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health, prompting six years of annual leadership change.
He returned to office in 2012, vowing to revitalize the nation and getting its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power.