SHP villagers urged to return slain cop’s body

By YVONNE HAIP
IT has been a week since probationary constable Isaac Mambi was brutally murdered and his body thrown into Kagul River along the border of Western Highlands and Southern Highlands.
However, his body is still missing, his police-issued firearm yet to be returned and the prime suspects have not surrendered to police.
Search parties have not given up and negotiations are currently underway between police and locals in Kaupena, Southern Highlands.
Local leaders said they were cooperating with police and constructive developments between the parties were expected to be made soon.
During a gathering at the Highway Patrol 17 base in Kaupena last Friday between police, Mambi’s relatives and Kaupena locals, Southern Highlands police commander Chief Supt Teddy Tei said he wanted the body of the late Mambi found and handed over to police, along with suspects and those involved in the killing and the return of the firearm.
Tei added that if he did not either of these things, police would continue operations in Kaupena until “something was done”.
He said this “animalistic” and “barbaric” incident was a first for the highlands where a police officer on duty and in full uniform was “cruelly slaughtered by narrow-minded lunatics”.
Mambi had been murdered last Wednesday while enforcing the total liquor ban effective for an indefinite period in the province since last year.