TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The coffin of slain police officer 1st Brigadier Sanoi had been transported to Sentani Airport in Jayapura District to be buried at the Abepura Christian cemetery on Sunday.

Sanoi was assaulted and killed by several armed Papuan terrorists while he was securing the Oksamol police precinct in Pegunungan Bintang District, Papua Province, in the early hours of May 28, 2021.

The fallen police officer's coffin was flown by a Sam Air's aircraft to Sentani Airport for the burial, Pegunungan Bintang Police Chief Adjunct Sen.Coms.Cahyo Sukarnito told ANTARA.

The local police investigators are probing the murder case, he said, adding Sanoi was assaulted and killed while he was securing the police precinct alone.

The attackers did not just kill the police officer who had been stationed at the police precinct since 2018 but they also grabbed three firearms.

Over the course of the last few years, armed Papuan terrorist groups have employed hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel and mounted acts of terror against civilians in several districts, including Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak, to create a sense of fear among the people.

Construction workers, motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, teachers, students, street food vendors, and also civilian aircraft were the recent targets of such terror acts.

On December 2, 2018, a group of armed Papuan rebels brutally killed 31 workers from PT Istaka Karya that were engaged in the construction of the Trans Papua project in Kali Yigi and Kali Aurak in Yigi sub-district, Nduga District.

On the same day, the armed attackers also killed a soldier, identified as Handoko, and injured two other security personnel, Sugeng and Wahyu.

Such acts of violence have continued this year. On January 6, 2021, at least 10 armed separatist terrorists vandalized and torched a Quest Kodiak aircraft belonging to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) on the Pagamba village airstrip.

On February 8, 2021, a 32-year-old man was shot at close range in Bilogai Village, Sugapa Sub-district.

The victim, identified by his initials as RNR, sustained gunshot wounds on the face and right shoulder and was shifted to the Timika Public Hospital in Mimika District on February 9.

In a separate incident on February 9, six armed Papuans fatally stabbed a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver.

On April 8, 2021, several armed Papuan rebels opened fire at a kiosk in Julukoma Village, Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District.

The shooting resulted in the death of a Beoga public elementary school teacher, identified as Oktovianus Rayo.

After killing Rayo, the armed attackers torched three classrooms at the Beoga public senior high school.

On April 9, 2021, armed separatists reportedly fatally shot another teacher, Yonatan Randen, on the chest.

Two days later, nine classrooms at the Beoga public junior high school were set ablaze by an armed group.

Barely four days later, Ali Mom, a student of the Ilaga public senior high school in Beoga Sub-district, was brutally killed by armed attackers.

On April 25, 2021, Papuan separatists operating in Beoga ambushed State Intelligence Agency (Papua) Chief Maj. Gen. I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha and several security personnel while they were visiting Dambet Village.

Following Nugraha's fatal shooting, President Joko Widodo ordered the TNI and National Police to track down and arrest all members of armed separatist and terrorist groups operating in Papua while stressing that there is no place for them within the Indonesian territory.

Read: Police Post Attacked; Papua Police Chief Says One Killed, Three Firearms Stolen

ANTARA