The National Police said on Monday that they suspect the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was behind the shooting of a police chief in Papua.
“We strongly suspect that it was done by the separatist group,” national police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Comr. Domingus Oktavianus Awes, chief of Mulia Airport Police in Puncak Jaya, was shot by unknown assailants at the airport at 11:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. in Jakarta) on Monday.
According to witnesses, Anton said Domingus was standing in front of a plane when two men lunged at him and pinned him down.
“One of the men took the chief’s gun and shot him in the face,” he said.
The two perpetrators, still carrying the gun, ran off into the forest.
“We are chasing them. The victim has been taken to the hospital for the autopsy,” Anton said.
The attack, he said, was the fourth deadly incident in two weeks, after eight people were killed following incidents related to PT Freeport and the recent Papua Congress in Abepura.