Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh suspect a political motive is behind the murder of a local politician who was gunned down by unknown assailants on Friday morning.

Muhammad bin Zainal Abidin, 33, a member of the Aceh National Party (PNA), was shot twice in the back of the head after his Toyota Avanza MPV was reportedly hijacked.

His lifeless body was discovered inside the car that had plunged into a river near the village of Blang Beureueh in the district of Pidie at 7 a.m. on Friday.

"The victim had two shot wounds in the back of his head. One [bullet] exited through his right cheek and the other dislodged [inside the head] with a depth of 2 centimeters," Pidie district police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Dumadi said.

The officer said that police were still examining the crime scene, adding that the bullets have not been found. There were no witnesses to the incident, Dumadi said, adding that the scene of the crime is mostly a farming area and far from people's homes. Dumadi said politics is the likely motive behind the murder.

Before joining the PNA, Muhammad was a member of the Aceh Party, a party comprised of mainly former militiamen from the now disbanded Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

According to M. Zaini, chairman of the Pidie chapter of PNA, Muhammad was loyal to former governor Irwandi Yusuf, another former Aceh Party politician.

When the Aceh Party decided not to support Irwandi for his reelection bid and instead nominate the current governor, Zaini Abdullah, Muhammad joined Irwandi, who resigned from the Aceh Party and established his own party, the PNA, last year.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) recently recognized the PNA as one of three local parties in Aceh competing in next year's legislative election. Aceh, with its special autonomous status granted by the central government in 2006, is the only province allowed to have local parties.

PNA's Zaini said that Muhammad was likely kidnapped before he was executed saying that he normally drives his own car. "When [rescuers] pulled the body from the river, the victim's body was not in the driver's seat but in the back seat," he told the Jakarta Globe on Friday. "We condemn this cowardly act."

Party chairman Irwansyah urged the police to bring Zainal's killers to justice. "We should not be afraid of political thuggery," Irwansyah said. "All party cadres should unite and be solid against this political thuggery."

Aceh was the scene of a bloody civil war that lasted nearly three decades before it ended with a peace treaty with the Indonesian government in 2005.

But ever since, Aceh has been home to politically charged violence that plagued the resource-rich province during the 2009 legislative election and the 2012 gubernatorial election.

With the legislative election just 13 months away, Destika Gilang Lestari, coordinator of the Aceh branch of human rights group Kontras, said "there are symptoms that a string violence will appear again."

Muhammad's death came after a PNA legislative candidate named Zuhra claimed that she has been receiving death threats from an Aceh Party politician who called her "a traitor."

Destika called on law enforcers to bring the people behind the violence to justice, saying that such cases will hurt democracy and could destabilize Aceh after eight years of peace.