TIMIKA ~ A crack paramilitary policeman was shot dead in an ambush by unidentified attackers in the highlands of remote Papua province on Wednesday, police said.

The policeman was shot at midday as he travelled in a convoy of the elite Mobile Brigade to oversee preparations for July 8 presidential elections in Puncak Senyum village, police spokesman Nurhabri said.

“The attack was done from quite far away. The attackers hid in the bushes up in the hills and fired a volley of shots,” Nurhabri said.

Nurhabri said police did not know how many people were involved in the attack, which was “likely not” the work of the separatist Free Papua Movement.

Separatist sentiment runs high in Papua, which sits on the western end of New Guinea island and was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s.

Foreign journalists are usually barred from the region.