A farmer in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province was found
dead with his throat slit as a video surfaced of a similar killing earlier this
month, police said Monday, adding they suspected that a militant group linked
to the Islamic State (IS) killed both men.
Ambo Ajeng (also known as Papa Angga) was attacked on Sunday
by a group of armed men believed to be members of Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen
(MIT), while he was working at his farm in Poso regency, provincial police spokesman
Didik Supranoto said. The attack occurred four days after police killed two
suspected MIT militants who had shot and wounded an officer outside a Poso
bank.
“Before being killed, the victim was taken by a group of
people carrying machetes and firearms. Apparently there were more than five MIT
members,” Didik told BenarNews. The group fired three shots at nearby farmers but
no one was hurt, Didik said. “We are still investigating MIT’s motive for
killing Papa Angga. What is known from previous cases is MIT killed locals,
especially farmers, because they were accused of helping police,” Didik said.
According to Inspector Gen. Syafril Nursal, the provincial
police chief, the victim was not a police informant. “The farmer was not an
auxiliary to the authorities in Poso, nor did he assist police. This cannot be
tolerated and must be dealt with firmly,” Syafril said in a statement. He said
he had ordered members of the Tinombala task force, a joint police-army
operation established in January 2016 to capture or kill MIT militants, to
pursue the perpetrators. “We do not want MIT to create chaos in the community.
I also urge people to unite to against terrorism in Poso regency,” he said.
MILITANT VIDEO
Meanwhile, investigators on Saturday discovered a video that
has circulated online showing a man believed to be MIT leader Ali Kalora urging
militants and supporters to attack security forces. “Taghut [tyrants] will fall
because of the coronavirus and the war in the near future,” the man in the
video said. He warned people who help police that they would be killed.
“We will cut your necks, by God, if you don’t repent soon,
God willing,” he said, according to the video seen by BenarNews.
The video shows the beheading of a man believed to be a
farmer who was found dead earlier this month on a plantation in Poso Pesisir
Utara. “We are still investigating how the video could be spread. Because it is
impossible for them to upload from the jungle, there must be someone who
uploaded it in the village,” Poso police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner
Darno said.
He confirmed the video was made recently and the victim was
identified as farmer Daeng Tapo. Tapo was reported missing on April 4 after he
was believed to have been kidnapped by MIT militants. “The group is
intentionally spreading fear with the video. That’s why we urge the public to
remain calm and not respond to the video,” Darno said.
Meanwhile, the director of the Institute for Human Rights
Studies and Development (LPS-HAM) in Central Sulawesi, Mohammad Affandi Zarkasi
said claims that people had been killed by MIT for helping police must be
investigated. “How did the group know that the people they killed were police
auxiliaries? Do they have informants that tip them off?” he told BenarNews.
Affandi said the Tinombala task force should not only focus
on hunting MIT fighters, but also look for sympathizers who are in contact with
the group. “I suspect there are many MIT sympathizers in the villages who are
not detected by the task force,” he said.
On April 15, police in Poso shot and killed two suspected
MIT members who had wounded a police officer outside a bank. Footage from a
surveillance camera showed one of the men pointing a gun at the officer as he
parked his motorcycle in front of the bank. The officer put up a fight, but one
of the attackers shot him in the chest, while the other tried to seize his
weapon.
Police chased the attackers who escaped on a motorbike and
killed them in an ensuing gun battle, Didik said at the time. Indonesia, The
world’s largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist
attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on
IS-affiliated militants.
Source: Benar News – 20 April
2020
https://bit.ly/2VtNH2O
https://bit.ly/2VtNH2O
FOLLOW US:
http://facebook.com/alhaqcentremalaysia
http://al-haqcentre.blogspot.com
http://instagram.com/alhaqcentre
"UNITED AGAINST TERRORISM"
Comments
Post a Comment