The shooting incident was allegedly linked to district head elections at that time, Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said.Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - Chief of the Papua Provincial Police Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian said the recent shooting of soldiers and civilians in Puncak and Puncak Jaya Districts, Papua Province, was not related to rebellion.
The shooting incident was allegedly linked to district head elections at that time, he said here on Monday.
"We are now collecting pieces of evidence, including alleged involvement of a candidate in the district head elections," he said.
He added the evidence was needed to see if the district head candidate had been involved in the incident.
Therefore, he said, the police believed that the incident had nothing to do with rebellion.
"We do not need dialogs as what has happened is a criminal case and has nothing to do with politics," he said adding the police had reinforced its personnel to anticipate security disturbance in the region.
The shooting incident left 12 people dead, eight of them soldiers.
The slain soldiers were First Sergeants Udin, Frans, Ramadhan, and Edi, First Private Mustofa, Wahyu Bowo as well as Chief Private Jojo Wiharja and Wempi.
Meanwhile, the civilians killed in the incident were identified as Markus Kevin Rendenan, Yulius, Rudi, and Yohanis Palimbong.
All the bodies were evacuated to the provincial capital Jayapura by helicopter on Sunday morning (Feb 24). The evacuation process was previously delayed by unidentified shooting and bad weather. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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