Police hunt hauls in seven escapees

OPERATION Painim kalabus man between the police and Correctional Services has had several breakthroughs in capturing seven escapees since its launch two weeks ago.
For the past weeks, police raids were conducted in suspected settlements and suburbs with nine locations around Port Moresby and three from outside of the city, National Capital District police commander Chief Supt Fred Yakasa said last Friday.
Chief Supt Yakasa said the operation, since its roll out, had progressed well and explained that the reason he had taken the matter up himself was to ensure all efforts were put into the recapturing of escapees for public safety during the major international tournaments anticipated later in the province.
He said with the PNG Games approaching as well as the Pacific Cup rugby league tournament set to be staged between this month and next month, it was important to return some guarantee for public safety throughout the events.
He indicated that since the start of the operations, 127 suspects had been processed and seven escapees recaptured.
Chief Supt Yakasa said the number of escapees stand at a total of eight recaptured after one who surrendered on Saturday and was returned to the Bomana jail the same day.
This leaves 46 escapees still at large.
He added that the operation would be scaled down shortly but hoped for the  promised support from responsible sectors.
Chief Supt Yakasa also said that he had called on an investigation into the release of two suspects, who were released from police custody at Six-Mile, bypassing the screening and processing process.
He said there was interference that had occurred and also involved a prominent leader and two other officers, who allegedly released the suspects who were under police custody