Jakarta. A police officer in Aceh’s Tangse subdistrict was shot dead on Wednesday when he and nine other officers were trying to arrest a man accused of drug dealing.

Second Brig. Sayed M. Reza was posing as a buyer of marijuana from an alleged drug dealer, identified only as D.A., but the suspect went for Sayed’s gun and shot him in the back, police said.

Sayed died en route to Tengku Chiek Di Tiro hospital in Sigli. Aceh Police have launched a manhunt.

“The shooter is identified as D.A., and he is now on the run,” National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Thursday.

The province has seen a spate of violence lately. On Tuesday, two Indonesian intelligence officers were found shot dead, a day after being kidnapped by gunmen in western Aceh’s former separatist heartland, a military spokesman said.

The bodies of the two soldiers were found face down and half naked in a remote area in northern Aceh, said Lt. Col. Machfud. The hands of one soldier had been bound behind his back.

Police have yet to determine a motive for the killings, or the gunmen’s identities.

Witnesses said a group of gunmen ambushed the soldiers as they returned from questioning residents about former rebels considered active in the east and north of the province.

Their car was found abandoned a short time later.

The military denied the officers were questioning local residents, saying its presence in the province was limited to “social work, like helping farmers in their fields.”

Additional reporting from Agence France-Presse

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Source: The Jakarta Globe