City police tackle school fights

By GABRIEL LAHOC
POLICE in Lae, Morobe, have stepped up their bid to stop school fights and petty crimes in the past couple of weeks, with the Mobile Squad 13 (MS13) on stand-by.
That approach has resulted in more than 150 arrests, with police raking in more than K10,000 for the state through bail money paid by those arrested, locked up and released.
Those arrested include
primary and secondary school students.
Lae metropolitan commander Supt Nema Mondiai confirmed that was the result of additional police presence on the streets, boosted by the MS13,
after their deployment into the highlands region as part of the general election security force operations.
Last Friday, 16 St Paul’s Primary School students who were involved in another fight were rounded up by a MS13 unit, beaten and arrested.
In a separate incident, a number of Bugandi secondary school students were released, while six male students who were picked out by police as “the main instigators and ringleaders” were arrested and taken into custody.
Bumayong Secondary School students had their share of encounters with the MS13 when they were approached in the Bumayong area but only three young men, who were friends of the students, were caught and manhandled.
The group of students fled from the police.
MS13 officers confiscated three home-made guns from the three young men and a number of 9mm bullets.
A police source confirmed the three had been sentenced to five years jail each for that.
Apart from the misbehaving students, a good number of other arrests included petty criminals and drunks.
“Yes, we made a lot of arrests and collected good bail money,” Mondiai said.
He said the Lae public had enjoyed peace and security for the past three weeks.
 since the special operation started.