Scores arrested for killing 4 officers in Vietnam police stations attacks
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, June 12 (EFE).- Vietnamese authorities on Monday raised to 22 the number of people arrested in relation to the assault with firearms against two police stations in the country, leaving four police officers dead along with an unknown number of civilians.
The Public Security Ministry said in a statement on its website that the deceased agents received a posthumous promotion, while the number of detainees increased from 16 reported Sunday following the attack in the Cu Kuin region, in the province of Dak Lak, and search for more suspects.
According to the Vietnamese government, the four officers killed were between 29 and 42, while at least two other officers were injured.
Vietnamese authorities did not say whether there were casualties among the attackers and only said “several” civilians were killed.
The images that appeared in some Vietnamese media show the handcuffed suspects, as well as the rifles and knives with which they attacked the police stations.
The Police released two hostages Sunday, while a third was able to escape by their own means, but the ministry did not clarify whether the assailants had captured more people.
The government said the population of the area should remain calm and follow the instructions of the authorities after the rare incident in a country where owning firearms is prohibited and their access on the black market is difficult.
For decades, the mountains in the center of the country where the incident occurred have seen clashes over land and various ethnic minorities opposed to the communist regime, especially the so-called “Montagnards,” a group of various ethnicities who fought on the United States’ side during the Vietnam War.
Radio Free Asia reported last April that in the same region the Police beat dozens of locals from the Ebe minority who were opposed to a drainage project for fear that it would contaminate the waters of a lake on which their livelihood depends. EFE
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