Papuan gunmen attack medical workers, burn facilities: police
Jakarta. A group of gunmen attacked a remote district in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua, targeting a clinic and other public facilities, killing at least one medical worker, the officials said Thursday. authorities.
National police said Monday’s attack was carried out by an armed criminal group or KKB, the acronym used by government authorities to attribute it to violent groups in the troubled province.
About 50 people attacked six medical workers in a village in Kiwirok town, located in the mountainous Pegunungan Bintang district, said deputy district police chief Cahyo Sukarnito, as quoted by the Antara news agency.
They then set fire to a clinic, a bank office, a school building and a market.
Four medical workers jumped into a ravine to hide from the attackers, the officer said. Two of them could be rescued immediately after calm returned, but it took two days to locate the other two – one of them was found dead.
A joint rescue team of police and military rescued a nurse identified as Kristina Sampe from the ravine on Wednesday afternoon. She suffered stab wounds in the back, Cahyo said.
A doctor broke his arm after being hit with an iron stick by the attackers, he added.
However, attempts to remove the body of another nurse named Gabriela Meilan have been hampered by bad weather, Papua Police spokesman Chief Commissioner AM Kamal said in a statement.
“When we tried to evacuate the body, the weather got worse, making evacuation impossible on such difficult terrain,” Kamal said. Relief operations resumed Thursday morning.
All surviving medical workers are currently being treated at a nearby military post.
The attack lasted for about four hours, but the shooting with soldiers arriving later that day continued thereafter.
A soldier was shot in the hand, police said, but it is still unclear whether there were any casualties in the attackers’ camp.
The attack came nearly two weeks after a deadly ambush at a military post in the town of Maibrat in neighboring West Papua, killing four army soldiers who were caught off guard by the surprise attack around two hours after midnight .
The national police and the army have launched a massive manhunt targeting at least 11 people accused of murdering the soldiers.
The Indonesian government has designated the KKB as a terrorist organization, despite the absence of any specific mention beyond the generic term.
Authorities have bolstered titles in Papua, which will host multi-event sports the National Games early next month.