Clash results in death of young man

A fight between three Southern Highlands factions at Mt Hagen on Saturday night resulted in the death of a young man, police said.
The fight started over a drinking session and turned into a brawl among Kagua, Ialibu and Nipa groups.
The fight continued on Sunday morning but police managed to calm the situation down.
Western Highlands rural zone commander Chief Inspector David Kongua and his policemen managed to move into the fighting area and arrested three people.
They are locked up at the Mt Hagen police station.
Provincial police commander Jacob Kamiak could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The fight took place at Pish Pond in the Nipa and Kagua compounds.
It started when some drunks tried to interfere with a woman who had come with her boyfriend that night.
However, when the boyfriend, from Ialibu, was overpowered, the man from Nipa who eventually died went to his aid and was stabbed.
The deceased, Philip Aoi, was among the fighting groups and was believed to have been stabbed with a knife, resulting in his death.
Kongua told The National that more people could have died.
He said the three men in police custody have been charged with murder.
Kongua told the grieving Nipa community in Mt Hagen to allow the law to take its cause so that proper investigations could be held to determine the cause of the death and who was involved.
Kongua said many similar incidents were taking place and community leaders and family members needed to start addressing them.
“This fight among the Southern Highlanders could have led to more destruction and that was caused by a handful of people,” Kongua said.