The National Police has asked its Papua division to step up its operations in efforts to secure the province following a recent spate of violence, much of it involving its own officers.
National Police spokesperson Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said his team had also asked the Indonesian Military (TNI) to pursue a separatist group suspected to have been behind the fatal shooting of the Mulia Airport Police chief on Monday.
“We have already made an order to increase our [number of] personnel,” Anton said Monday as quoted by kompas.com.
He added that he had not been able to ascertain whether police would announce a state of emergency following several shootings in Papua.
Anton said eight people had died over the past few weeks in Papua. The most recent occurred on Monday at 11.30 a.m. (local time), when two unidentified gunmen shot Mulia Airport Police chief Adj. Comm. Dominggus Octavianus in Puncak Jaya, Papua. Dominggus died in the attack.
Earlier, at least six people were found dead after an incident at the Third Papuan Congress, with various reports that police had shot at participants. Police have denied that excessive force was used, despite multiple accounts of officers bashing Congress participants with batons and the butts of their rifles.
Also in Papua, two demonstrators were shot dead during a recent rally over wages at the Freeport Indonesia mine.