[AFP]
Separatist rebels shot dead a 16-year-old schoolboy in Indonesia’s Papua province, police said Friday about the latest in a spate of recent killings of civilians whom the insurgents accused of spying for the government.
As they did after other fatal attacks this month, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) rebels claimed responsibility for the boy’s killing. Lekagak Telenggen, the group’s general operations chief, said the teenager, Ali Mom, was a spy for the authorities.
“Yesterday night around 6 or 7 p.m. my members shot dead a provocateur and intelligence agent named Ali Mom in Ilaga,” Lekagak told BenarNews by phone from Ilaga, a district in Puncak regency where the teenager was gunned down.
[AFP]
Updated at 8:17 p.m. ET on 2021-04-14
Suspected separatist rebels shot and killed a motorcycle taxi driver in the Papua region of far-eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, police said, about the third fatal attack on a civilian in the past week.
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), an insurgent group, could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday, but its operations commander said a day earlier that it was responsible for last week’s killing of two of the civilians, who were teachers. The rebels claimed they were informants working for the government.
“We shot them dead. If you want war, face us. Don’t go after the people. We are responsible for the shootings,” Lekagak Telenggen, TPNPB’s general operations commander, told BenarNews.