T

he police continued Friday hunting two suspects involved in a recent bloody shooting that killed two police officers in Palu, not far from Poso, where sectarian conflict erupted in early 2000.

Two other perpetrators involved in the shooting, which seriously injured a third officer, were arrested hours after the incident.

The hunt was led by Central Sulawesi Police deputy chief Sr. Comr. Ari Dono Sukmanto through the hilly areas in Tankura, Poso Pesisir Selatan district, where the two men were believed to have hidden.

The two gunmen have been called by many as ‘anak bebek’ (ducklings), a term for young locals recruited by hard line groups in Poso, including Jamaah Islamiyah, blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Bali and other parts of Indonesia.

Most of these young people were reportedly still teenagers at the time of the conflict, which claimed about 1,000 lives and displaced 25,000 others, according to Tadulako University sociologist Tahmidi Lasahido in Palu.

Tahmidi said that the young recruits were mainly children whose parents and family members fell victim to the conflict and had grown bitter toward the authorities.

Enmity was also sparked by police involvement in sectarian violence, including an attack on the hard-line group’s headquarters in Poso on Jan. 22, 2007 and the hunt for perpetrators on the most wanted list.

“Now the revenge is no longer horizontal (against civilians of other faiths), but vertically against the security officers. So whoever they are, as long as they [are] security officers [they] will become target of the shooting,” he said.

From Poso, it was reported that the house of Harianto, one of the two gunmen arrested by the police, had been empty.

Harianto’s neighbors in Kayamanya subdistrict in downtown Poso said that his wife and family members left the house as soon as they heard report about the capture of Harianto. “No one knows where his wife and family members went,” said neighbor Mita Meinansi on Friday.

Titian Perdamaian Foundation activist Ichsan Malik said Friday that Central Sulawesi had not been fully free from terrorist actions as any trivial trigger could suddenly become bigger on anything.

Ichsan urged the police officers to be on alert. The Central Sulawesi Police chief had to be strict in executing his policy, he said.

As the highest police official in the province, he should no longer approach the community simply by establishing security posts, but had to be tougher against suspected terrorists who could be very close to the community.

Tahmidi added that new recruitment was very easy, as it could be done through ordinary religious activities.