JAYAPURA. Three more members of an armed group led by Puron Wenda were arrested at a trade center in Jayapura, Papua, on Wednesday.
The three, identified as Rais Wenda, 27, Albert Jikwa, 29, and Fredi Kagoya, 15, were arrested as they traveled on a minibus in the Papua Trade Center in the city.
Papua Provincial Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rudolf Patrige said the three were still undergoing an intensive interrogation in connection with their alleged involvement in recent bloody assaults in Timika and Jayapura.
“But the three are being grilled on their status as witnesses to the incidents,” he said.
The arrest of the three was conducted by the police following the arrest of two other members of the armed group in Wamena on Saturday.
Patrige denied spreading rumors that an Army soldier had been arrested for selling guns and ammunition to the armed group.
Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Fransen G. Siahaan, chief of the Cendrawasih Military Command overseeing Papua and West Papua, also denied the rumors and said that only the three members of the armed group were arrested in a joint raid launched by the police and the military in the province. (Nethy Dharma Somba)
