Cops nab 6 looters in Mt Hagen mayhem

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Cops nab 6 looters in Mt Hagen mayhem

PORT MORESBY: Police have arrested six looters in the Friday-Saturday mayhem in Mt Hagen that saw two secondary schoolboys and two civilians killed.

Highlands Western End commander Assistant Commissioner Rigga Neggi said the street fights were sparked by fighting among students from Hagen Park Day Secondary School and Mt Hagen Secondary School.

“The looters were caught in a commercial building (Mt Hagen Plaza) on Friday night and were detained for questioning,” he said.

“We have yet to determine whether the looters were students or opportunists taking advantage of the student fights on the street,” he added.

The news update was published by The National:

Police arrest six looters

April 5, 2022The NationalMain Stories

By GEORGINA KOREI and ELIAS LARI
POLICE have arrested six looters in the Friday-Saturday mayhem in Mt Hagen that saw two secondary schoolboys and two civilians killed.
Highlands Eastern End commander Assistant Commissioner Rigga Neggi said the street fights were sparked by fighting among students from Hagen Park Day Secondary School and Mt Hagen Secondary School.
“The looters were caught in a commercial building (Mt Hagen Plaza) on Friday night and were detained for questioning,” he said.
“We have yet to determine whether the looters were students or opportunists taking advantage of the student fights on the streets.
“On Saturday, gun shots were still heard from locations that police were not deployed to.
“Because of the looting, some business owners must have used their weapons to protect their properties.
“Some unlicensed firearms were used during the looting of stores.
“Both illegal and legal firearms were used by the public.”
Neggi said his office had submitted reports of the fighting and looting to the police headquarters for further investigations to be carried out in Mt Hagen.
“We are now waiting for the forensic officers from the headquarters to come and help conduct a thorough investigation,” he said.
“There were so many group fights that broke from the main fight between the school students, so we do not know the people got injured.
“So many people were injured and we could not determine whether it is from a knife, stone or bullet.”
Neggi said the provincial education board were working with the police to come up with strategies on how they could handle (such) school fights.
“We have to come up with some tough rules to penalise students involved in school fights as a lesson to all,” he said.
Provincial commander Chief Superintendent Joe Puri said the situation was tense.
Business was usual in Mt Hagen city yesterday while some primary and private schools had sent students home because of the tense security situation.
Meanwhile, the Western Highlands education board suspended classes in the two secondary schools.
Board chairman Lawrence Pena said the board and police would be setting up an investigation team each to determine the facts that led to the street fights.
“The suspension is to facilitate the identification of students involved in the fighting,” he said.
Pena said there could be some other ways to calm the situation (after the first fighting that broke out on March 25) but that did not happen.
“These are the two biggest secondary schools in the province and the board has set up a team to investigate the fighting among the schoolboys and for action to be taken,” he said.
“We must not allow this to recur.
“We (also) believe that this was a police shooting (case) and an investigation will fully reveal it.”
Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra told The National that a team from the department would be sent to Western Highlands to attend to the case.
“It is regrettable that a few students started an issue that has escalated to a huge fight that resulted in several deaths,” he said.
“There are policies and guidelines in place to guide the provincial and school administrations to deal with such cases.
“We have the behaviour management policy since 2009 that was revised in 2014 aligning with the implementation guidelines that were approved and launched last year.”
However, Kombra clarified that with such cases where students were engaged in law and order issues outside school boundaries, “at times, it is difficult for school administrations to identify and take appropriate actions to mitigate or stop it”.
“Such as this case, we will need collective efforts from all stakeholders (to help resolve it),” he said.
Kombra said parents, churches, schools, teachers, school boards, guidance officers, police, including the department and provincial education boards must work together to resolve the problems.
Education Minister Jimmy Uguro said students must respect each other and the life of others.