JAKARTA (Reuters) – A senior Indonesian intelligence official was killed by a shot to the head on Sunday during an operation in the country’s easternmost province of Papua, according to a statement by the army.
Brigadier General Putu Dani, who headed operations in the restive region for the country’s intelligence agency (Badan Intelijen Negara), was shot while he was heading to the site of a shoutout with separatists, the military said.
West Papua has been riven by separatist conflict since the former Dutch colony was incorporated into Indonesia, following a controversial United Nations referendum in 1969.
Local media CNN Indonesia reported on Sunday that the area of Papua where the officer was killed, Beoga, has seen increasing levels of violence, including the deaths of a student and a teacher earlier in April.
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin and Agustinus Beo Da Costa; editing by David Evans)
