Fugitive involved in shootings on police arrested in Indonesia's Papua

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Xinhua, July 23, 2021
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JAKARTA, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian authorities have apprehended a criminal armed group (locally known as KKB) figure involved in previous shootings on police and military personnel in the county's eastern province of Papua, a police officer said on Friday.

Osimin Wenda, 30, was arrested near the city of Mulia in Puncak Jaya district, Papua province on Thursday, Papua police's spokesman Ahmad Mustafa Kamal said, adding that a task force had been conducting surveillance on Wenda's movements for the past two weeks, and made the arrest on Thursday afternoon.

"Yesterday, at around 11 a.m. local time, the team saw the suspect departing a market with a two-wheeled vehicle, and immediately made the arrest," Kamal said.

In 2014, Wenda was sentenced to life in prison. He had been on the run for five years after fleeing Abepura prison with 13 other inmates in January 2016, Kamal added.

The suspect was involved in the criminal group's past shootings on the authorities, most notably the attack on a police group with current Minister of Home Affairs Tito Karnavian, who was then the Papua police chief, in the town of Pirime, Jayawijaya district, Papua province in November 2012, and as a result, three policemen died, Kamal said.

Likewise, Wenda was allegedly involved in the shooting of a motorcycle taxi driver in Popome village, Lanny Jaya district, Papua province in November 2018, he added.

Armed criminal groups in Papua are often associated with the Free Papua Movement, an outlawed independence movement for Papua and West Papua provinces. Enditem

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