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Joint police, military team hunt Ayub Waker group
A joint team of National Police (Polri) and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel is pursuing an armed civilian group led by Ayub Waker suspected to be behind the recent killing of two members of a police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit and the theft of their weapons in Tembagapura, Mimika, Papua
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joint team of National Police (Polri) and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel is pursuing an armed civilian group led by Ayub Waker suspected to be behind the recent killing of two members of a police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit and the theft of their weapons in Tembagapura, Mimika, Papua.
'The joint team is focused on the pursuit of the Ayub Waker group as there is a strong indication that they are responsible for the killing of the two Brimob personnel,' Papua Police spokesperson Sr.Comr. Patrige Renwarin said in Jayapura on Monday.
Second Brig. Ryan Hariansah, 22, and First Brig. Muhammad Andriadi, 22, were killed in the attack in Utikini village, Tembagapura, on Jan.1. A Freeport Indonesia security official, Suko Miartono, 33, was also killed in the incident. The Brimob personnel's firearms are missing and presumed taken by the attackers.
Patrige explained the assumption that the Ayub Waker group was the perpetrator of the killings was based on a letter, from someone purporting to be Ayub Waker, to the Tembagapura sub-precinct police, which claimed responsibility for the murder of the two officers.
Shortly after the incident on Jan.1, security officials detained two civilians who were drunk at a location near the scene of the killings and they claimed to be Ayub Waker's men.
'The letter was sent to the Tembagapura sub-precinct police on Jan.7. The police's investigators do not automatically believe the claims in the letter, but we continue to hunt the Ayub Waker group because this group is operating in areas around Tembagapura and Timika,' said Patrige.
He said the police had dispatched 500 personnel to pursue the group.
The joint team took into custody 12 people suspected to be Ayub Waker's men who were arrested in Utikini village on Jan.7. They were arrested when picking up their colleague, identified only as JM, who was shot during an exchange of gunfire with security officials on Jan.6.
Patrige said the police were questioning the 12 people and JM, who was undergoing medical treatment at Tembagapura hospital.
'None of them have been named as suspects. The 12 people are still being questioned as witnesses,' he said. (ebf)(+++)
