Police appeal for collective effort against violence

By JILL MIRR
WESTERN Highlands police have engaged a task force to investigate a recent school fight which resulted in four deaths and destruction of properties in Mt Hagen, a senior police officer says.
Provincial police commander Chief Superintendent Joe Puri told The National that the situation in the city was still tense and urged the public to take precautions when moving around.
Puri appealed for a collective effort from everyone to take ownership, feel responsible for and look after the city when such situations happened.
“Our city is small, yet, it caters for people from all over the Highlands who come in and go out to do businesses so we must work together to look after it,” he said.
Puri urged men and youth to always protect women and other vulnerable groups when violence flared up.
He appealed to leaders and other adults to always act to calm down young people and defuse such situations.
“My special appeal to observers, especially adults, of similar fights to intervene instead of spectating and allowing it to escalate when seeing students confronting each other in public,” he said.
Puri said tragically lives had been lost in the latest incident while businesses had also been affected by the violence.
He said his officers would carry out awareness in the communities about fighting in public and other associated risks.