Criminals chop off cop’s hand

A POLICEMAN based at Bogia in the Madang province had his hands chopped off by criminals while attending to a complaint in a village.
The policeman believed to be from Morobe province was based at the Bogia police station.
Provincial rural police commander Snr InspPhilip Welia told The National that a truck loaded of youths from Bogia area was traveling at high speed and bumped into the police vehicle which was parked on the side of the road.
He said the criminals got out of the car and started bashing up the two policemen and chopped one of the policeman’s hand off as he tried to defend himself while the other policeman managed to escape.
The criminals left the bleeding policeman and took the police vehicle and drove away.
Snr Insp Welia said the suspects drove back to the residence of the policeman and started assaulting the families and destroyed his house and his properties.
He said after receiving the news, he organised for reinforcement but the task force unit in the province did not respond so he arranged for his rural policemen and women to go into the area.
He said the suspects fled when they arrived in the area, but managed to arrest two.