KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ‐ A Japanese physician and aid worker in eastern Afghanistan died of his wounds after an attack Wednesday that also killed five Afghans, including the doctor’s bodyguards, the driver and a passenger, a hospital spokesman said.The attack in Nangarhar province targeted Japanese doctor Tetsu Nakamura as he was heading to the provincial capital, Jalalabad, according to the provincial governor’s spokesman, Attaullah Khogyani.
Nakamura was seriously wounded and was reported to be in critical condition immediately after the attack. He underwent surgery at a local hospital but died of his wounds shortly after, while being airlifted to the Bagram airfield hospital in the capital, Kabul, said Gulzada Sanger, the hospital spokesman.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed shock at the brutal killing. "As a doctor, Mr. Nakamura made great contributions in areas of medical care in Afghanistan," Abe told reporters in Tokyo, stressing that Nakamura risked his life daily "in a dangerous and intense region."
Nakamura had headed the Japanese charity, Peace Medical Service, in Nangarhar since 2008. He came to Afghanistan after a Japanese colleague, Kazuya Ito, was abducted and killed.
| Tolo News adds: |
Palace spokesman Sediq Sediqqi on twitter strongly condemned the attack on Afghanistan’s “greatest friend,” and said that Dr. Nakamura “dedicated all his life to change the lives of Afghans, working on water management, dams and improving traditional agriculture in Afghanistan.”
TOLOnews reporter Abdulhaq Omeri said that Dr. Nakamura worked more than a decade in the province and was recently awarded an honorary Afghan citizenship by President Ghani.