"The shooting of the Mulia police chief is still under investigation, and our three teams are there now to hunt the perpetrators," Chief of the Criminal Investigation Department (Kabareskrim) Commissioner General Sutarman said in Depok on Tuesday.
Finding the assailants would be quite a challenge because of the forbidding geographic conditions in Papua, and therefore the police teams each consisted of 10 men who were familiar with the terrain in the country most-eastern province.
"To catch them, we need strong teams. We even need the assistance of TNI (National Defense Forces) to pursue them, as they might be hiding in the jungle," Sutarman said.
A battalion of the Police`s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) from Kelapa Dua, Depok, was also deployed to Papua, Tuesday (Oct 25). The battalion comprising 300 men would operate under directives of the Papua Provincial Police Chief.
Police said the men who killed the Mulia district police chief in Papua earlier on Monday belonged to a separatist group.
"They are believed to be members of a separatist group because they escaped into the jungle. We are now still chasing them," the head of the National Police`s public relations division, Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam, said here on Monday (Oct 24).
He said the shooting incident was certainly of special concern to the police and local police had already been ordered to pursue its perpetrator. The manhunt was led by the chief of the National Police Headquarters` security maintenance division, Commissioner General Imam Sudjarwo.
"We have also asked the military (TNI) to help us in the hunt because we know it also has high skills in these matters," he said.
"Three other shooting incidents previously occurred in Papua, namely in Timika, at Mile 38 and Mile 39, leaving eight people dead," he said.
(Uu.F001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
