Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The National Police will send 170 personnel of its Mobile Brigade (Brimob) to Papua on Tuesday evening (Oct 25) following an escalation in tension in Mulia, Jayawijaya, Papua Province, a spokesman said.

"The personnel deployment is to assist the Papua provincial police. They will leave at 10 tonight," Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam, the National Police`s Public Relations Division Chief, said here on Tuesday.

The deployment was necessary to anticipate a worse situation in Papua, according to him.

Up to Tuesday noon, two gun battles occurred in Mulia town, Jayawijaya District, respectively at 6-7 am local time and 1-1.30 pm local time.

The first battle broke out when the remains of Adjunct Commissioner Dominggus Awes, Mulia sector police head who wast shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Monday (Oct 24), were flown to Jayapura. The second happened at a local Brimob post.

"Both battles occurred in the same region but there wes no report of casualties," Bachrul said.

"The perpetrators of the shooting at the Brimob post were several poeple, and they are now being hunted," he said.

Awes` remains were flown to Jayapura for an autopsy at the Jayapura Police Hospital.

Bachrul had earlier said the man who shot to death the chief of the Mulia district police in Papua earlier on Monday belonged to a separatist group.

"He is believed to be a member of a separatist group because he escaped into the jungle. We are now still chasing him," 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.
(Uu.F001/HAJM/A014)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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