Jakarta – Military police chief Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin said here on Wednesday that 11 military personnel and two civilians had been declared suspects in the killing of at least 65 people, including Islamic boarding school teacher Tengku Bantaqiah, in the troubled province of Aceh in July.

Djasri did not reveal the names of the suspects, but said the most senior among them was a lieutenant colonel.

Troops allegedly shot dead Bantaqiah, his wife, his students and a number of farmers in an antirebel raid in the remote Beutong area of West Aceh, some 100 kilometers south of the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe, on July 23.

Local military officers maintain that Bantaqiah and his students, who it is believed to be supporters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were killed in an exchange of fire. Witnesses and a government-sanctioned inquiry said, however, that the victims were executed by troops.

The shooting in Beutong is among five alleged human rights cases in Aceh which the inquiry is focusing on in its investigations of alleged abuses in the restive province.

Djasri was quoted by Antara as saying that the suspects would be tried in a joint tribunal. Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said in late November that the tribunal would be presided over by military and civilian judges.