Minimum Number On Guard Set After Police Attacks

Semarang, Central Java, Sept 12 (Antara) - A regional police commander in Central Java has set a minimum number of police officers on duty and urged officers to carry arms to prevent attacks on them in future. "There should be at least two police officers on duty and they must be armed," said Inspector General Dwi Priyatno, the chief of the Central Java Police Command, after opening a seminar on "Preventing Terrorism: Between Maintaining Integrity of the Unitary State of Indonesia and Enforcing Human Rights" on Thursday. He has ordered police officers to conduct checks on the weapons in the warehouse. With regard to attacks on police officers, he said anticipatory measures should be taken to prevent such occurrences. Besides optimising the deployment of armed officers, he has ordered large-scale patrolling and intensive crackdown on the illegal possession of arms. "These operations have been launched in a number of areas," he noted. Dwi added that it is the responsibility of the police to protect the public. "The public should not be afraid. The police will handle perpetrators of violence," he said. On Tuesday night, a police officer was shot to death while escorting trucks carrying construction materials. The Indonesian National Police, meanwhile, has urged Indonesians to remain calm. "We urge the people to be confident and rely on (the police). They should not be afraid of such cases (terror)," said the national police`s head of public relations division Inspector General Ronny F. Sompie on Wednesday. According to him, police officers have never feared attacks, including those which occurred on Tuesday night and killed a Provost member, Chief Brigadier (Bripka) Sukardi. Chief Brig. Sukardi, a police officer commissioned with the provost division of the national police, was shot dead on Tuesday night by an unidentified gunman in front of the Corruption Eradication Commission office at Rasuna Said Street, South Jakarta. The police is trying to sketch the perpetrator`s face based on the information shared by eyewitnesses and images captured on closed-circuit television. In addition, the police is looking for the missing firearm, which was previously carried by Sukardi.