01 November 2004	Monday	17 Ramazan 1425

ISLAMABAD, Oct 31: Pakistan has strongly condemned the killing of a Japanese hostage in Iraq. In a statement issued here on Sunday, Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said that the government and people of Pakistan condemned the horrendous and brutal killing of Shosei Koda.

The spokesman said: "We sympathise with the family of the victim, who has been subjected to unspeakable sufferings."

He said: "We convey our deepest condolences to the government and people of Japan and the near and dear ones of the deceased."

The Foreign Office spokesman said: "We share their grief and fully understand it because sometimes ago, two Pakistani hostages lost their lives to such senseless brutality."

He said: "No ideology and no cause can be invoked to justify such a gruesome murder, which is plain terrorism."

The Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura confirmed that a head and body found in Baghdad were the remains of the Japanese hostage, Shosei Koda.-APP