Aussie tip-off gets Western cops raising to check on fight

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK|
Police officers from Daru, Western, were deployed to Mabudaun village along the PNG-Australia maritime border after being tipped off by Australian police about a fight there, South Fly police commander Senior Inspector Sengi Laki says.
Laki said yesterday that there were no telecommunications network coverage in that area so the villagers had to go in a dinghy across the border to Boigu Island in the Torres Strait to report the incident.
“They alerted Australian police that a man was wounded and the health centre was damaged during the fight.
“So the Australian police contacted us and I deployed my officers to Mabudaun to investigate the incident. I’m now waiting for them to return to provide updates as we don’t know what the fight was about.”
Meanwhile, Laki said that they have investigated an armed robbery incident at Morehead station and identified the two PNG Defence Force soldiers who were involved.
“We are now liaising with their senior military officers to surrender them to us to lay charges on them.”
The soldiers on border operations along the PNG-Indonesian border had allegedly held up a businessman and robbed him of 10 cartons of beer worth K2160 and K300 in cash, according to police reports.