Papua Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Fakhiri made the statement on Monday (July 17) in response to the attacks launched by several armed separatist terrorists operating in Intan Jaya on a police and military post in Homeyo.
Fakhiri did not elaborate on the exact number of personnel that he pledged to dispatch to Homeyo, but their deployment would hopefully reinforce the local police stations in the subdistrict.
Homeyo can be reached by a 10-minute flight from Sugapa, the capital of Intan Jaya District, Papua Province.
Papua Police spokesperson Sen. Coms. Ignatius Benni Prabowo had stated earlier that a group of armed Papuan separatist terrorists attacked a police and military station in Homeyo on Sunday (July 16).
The police and army personnel responded to the assaults. The gunfight broke out when a meeting for clarifying the loss of an assault rifle (SS1) belonging to the Homeyo police precinct was being held, he stated.
There were no fatalities as a result of the gunfight, he stated, adding that the armed separatist terrorists grabbed the rifle from the Homeyo police precinct at about 6 p.m. local time on Saturday (July 15).
"With the help of local residents, may the missing rifle be returned to the police," Prabowo remarked.
ANTARA had reported earlier that over the past few years, armed Papuan groups have often employed hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel and mounted acts of terror against civilians in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak to trigger fear among the people.
The targets of such acts of terror have included construction workers, motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, teachers, students, street food vendors, and also civilian aircraft.
On December 2, 2018, a group of armed Papuan rebels brutally killed PT Istaka Karya's 31 workers, who were engaged in the Trans Papua project in Kali Yigi and Kali Aurak in Yigi Sub-district, Nduga District.
The same day, armed attackers also killed a soldier, identified as Handoko, and injured two other security personnel, Sugeng and Wahyu.
Such acts of violence continued to occur in 2021, 2022, and 2023. On February 7, 2023, a group of armed Papuan separatists attacked a civilian aircraft owned by Susi Air.
They burned the plane at Paro Airfield, Nduga District, and captured its pilot, Captain Philip Mark Marthens. Again, on March 11, a Trigana Air plane was also shot at by members of an armed Papuan separatist group.
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
Copyright © ANTARA 2023
