Jakarta – The Surabaya chapter of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) condemned the police for allegedly obstructing the burial of Kurriyah, 24, a member of the Shiite community in Sampang, East Java.
"We urge the National Police chief to investigate," Fathkul Khoir of Kontras said on Thursday.
After battling a tumor and bone tuberculosis for years, Kurriyah passed away on Wednesday afternoon at a hospital in Surabaya, East Java.
He was one of hundreds of Shiite Muslims who were driven from their homes in Sampang – and relocated to Madura Island – by a Sunni majority mob in 2013.
On Wednesday, Kurriyah's body was brought first to Puspa Argo low-cost apartments in Sidoarjo on the outskirts of Surabaya, which have been turned into a Sampang Shiite relocation site in recent years.
His family planned to bury him in Karanggayam village, Sampang. However, they later received information from the Sampang Police that the village head opposed the plan.
The police later visited the apartment and ordered the family to take Kurriyah's body to a hospital in Sidoarjo instead. The family declined and insisted on transporting it to Sampang using an ambulance.
But when the ambulance arrived at the premises, a group of people believed to be police officers took control of it.
Another ambulance later managed to transport the body to the island, but was stopped on its way to the village allegedly by the police who asked the entourage to take the body back to Sidoarjo. (hol/ipa)