Jakarta – In contrast to its comparative silence over to the recent fatal shooting of several Papuan workers and demonstrators, the National Police has deployed three teams of detectives with military assistance to hunt down the killer of a police officer who was shot dead in Papua on Monday.

"We need military backup simply because of the tough field there. We need people familiar with the situation so that we can conduct our investigation," National Police chief detective Comr. Gen. Sutarman announced on Tuesday as quoted by tribunnews.com. When asked about the situation in Papua, Sutarman said everything was "still under control".

Police are investigating the death of Mulia Police chief Adj. Comr. Dominggus Oktovianus Awes, who was shot dead while on duty on Monday.

Despite not having named a suspect or any information on the investigation, police immediately announced Monday that Dominggus' killers were members of a group seeking Papuan independence from Indonesia.

No mention was made of any police investigations of the killers of six Papuan demonstrators killed after the Third Papua Congress, or of the violent beating of congress members by police officers. Nor was there any mention of investigations into the killing of two Freeport workers by police during a demonstration outside the Freeport Indonesia mine.