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rave diggers have pillaged 82 bodies from a cemetery in Cigaten village, Pagedangan District, Tangerang regency.

Pagedangan Police said 13 skeletons had already been found and reburied but 69 others were still unaccounted for. It is believed they have been moved to other cemeteries.

Pagedangan Police chief Comr. Murodih said relatives of the deceased had filed a police report Saturday.

 '€œAccording to the report, 82 graves had been excavated and many of the bodies are still missing,'€ he said as quoted by tempo.co on Monday.

Kompas.com reported that villagers were deeply upset by this incident.

Amnah, 80, condemned the desecration: '€œSeven of my relatives were buried at the cemetery and now their graves lie empty.'€

Villagers are pointing the finger of blame at a villager identified as Sobri.

At midnight Saturday, residents caught two of the grave diggers red-handed.

The men have been identified as Bewok and Irsad, who said they were following Sobri'€™s orders. They said they were paid Rp 2.5 million (US$204) for each grave.

Said, a neighborhood head in Cigaten, revealed that the grave digging was related to an ongoing conflict between villagers and a housing company.

'€œThe housing developer has evicted a number of villagers from their homes and, now, the company is trying to evict the dead,'€ he said, adding the housing developing company had offered a substantial amount of compensation but villagers had turned down the offer.

Azhar, another villager, concurred with Said and said that villagers had declined the company'€™s offer, which was made during a meeting with the housing developer company last year. (dyl)