Christian schoolgirls beheaded

2005-10-29 09:38

Jakarta - Three Christian teenage girls were beheaded on Saturday in the latest attack against non-Muslims in the troubled Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, police said.

The three high school students were found with their heads severed early on Saturday in the sectarian-divided town of Poso, said provincial police spokesperson Rais Adam.

The girls were believed to have been murdered while they were walking to school, Adam said.

He said two of the victims' heads were found near a police post while the third was discovered outside a local Christian church in Poso.

"We are still waiting for results from investigation in the field. We are still trying to determine whether this case is religiously-motivated or not," he told AFP.

A policewoman on duty in Poso confirmed to AFP that the triple murder had taken place and that the killings were being investigated.

Parts of Central Sulawesi, including Poso, have been the scene of intermittent fighting between Christians and Muslims that has left more than 1 000 people dead since 2000.

The government brokered a peace deal in the area 2001 but sporadic shootings and bombings have continued.

In May a pair of bomb attacks killed 22 people at a market in the neighbouring coastal town of Tentena.

- AFP