Killing of four workers in Indonesia's Papua province indicates increased risk of attacks targeting government highway project

EVENT

Around 20 gunmen from the armed wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka: OPM) shot dead four workers on 15 March in an attack on a highway project in Sinak, Puncak municipality.

The head of the Puncak local government said two other workers were kidnapped in the incident. The gunmen also set fire to an excavator and a bulldozer. The workers were building the Sinak to Mulia section of the 4,000-km Trans-Papua highway, a flagship government infrastructure project. An OPM spokesman, Sebby Sambom, pledged to carry out further attacks against the project. There have been previous OPM attacks in Sinak, most recently in December 2015 when three police officers were killed in an assault on their post.