Police are still looking for 50 inmates who escaped from the Bima Penitentiary during a fiery protest on Thursday.
“We have collected data on the escapees. We ask them to surrender soon,” National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafly Amar said Friday as quoted by tempo.co.
Thousands of protesters staged a rally in front of the Bima Regent’s office on Thursday. They demanded the local administration revoke PT Sumber Mineral Nusantara’s mining permit and the release of 56 villagers detained after a demonstration at Sape port on Dec. 24.
After setting fire to the regent’s office, the mob moved to the Bima Penitentiary on Jl. Ishak Abdullah, in Bima’s Raba district, and forced guards to release inmates.
Boy said that the police preferred a persuasive approach to get the detainees to return.
He added that the police had identified some provocateurs of the protest but they had not yet been arrested. (iwa)
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