Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – Police say they have identified two suspected members of the group that attacked a police station in Papua's Puncak district on Dec. 27, killing three officers and wounding one.
Gen. Badrodin Haiti, the National Police chief, named the suspects as Kalenak Murib and Iris Murib. It is not clear whether the individuals are related; Murib is a common clan name in Puncak district.
Badrodin told the Jakarta Globe on Saturday that a joint team of police and military personnel had raided the two men's homes in Sinak subdistrict and seized a large stash of ammunition, some of it stolen from the Sinak police station that was attacked last Sunday.
The haul included 150 rounds of ammunition for an AK-47 assault rifle; 239 rounds for a Pindad SS1, the standard Indonesian police and military issue assault rifle; and 82 rounds for an M14 rifle. Police also seized seven firearms, but Badrodin did not say what kind they were. It is believed the houses' occupants had fled prior to the raids.
Puncak and the neighboring district of Puncak Jaya in the Papuan hinterland are hotbeds of the province's long-running separatist insurgency, with police identifying six clan-based groups as being responsible for much of the armed attacks against security forces in the two districts.
In Puncak, they include the Murib Military, based in Sinak and Gomeh subdistricts, as well as a group led by Titus Murib in Kepala Air subdistrict and a third led by Peni Murib in Muara subdistrict.
A fourth group, the one alleged to be responsible for the attack on the Sinak police station, is led by Kalenak Murib and Alex Gagak Murib, and based out of Ilaga, the Puncak district seat, according to district chief Puncak Willem Wandik.
The group has also been blamed for a similar attack on a group police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel in December 2014. The weapons seized by the perpetrators in that earlier incident are believed to have been used in the recent attack, authorities say.
Police allege that the groups are all affiliated to varying degrees with the Free Papua Organization, or OPM, which has for decades waged a low-level war for independence from Indonesian rule.
Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/plenty-bullets-seized-no-arrests-yet-papua-shooting/