Two people have been killed and had their bodies burned. This while, several houses were razed to the ground following a clash between gang members and frustrated community members in Swaim village in West Coast Wewak, East Sepik over the weekend. East Sepik Provincial Police Commander Superintendent Christopher Tamari said the gang, led by their criminal ring leader is known to police as Masi Clinton Husek. According to PPC Tamari, Husek’s gang members of about 15 men attacked Herman Lobi killed two of his sons and threw their bodies into their burning house on Saturday morning. The reason for the attack was over a previous murder in October last year. One of Husek’s gang members killed a relative of Lobi, and they were frequenting Lobi’s residence and demanded that they settle it out of court. But Lobi, being the main complainant refused and opted to have the law deal with the suspect. Over this, they attacked Lobi and his family around dawn on Saturday morning, killing the two and burning down their house. Following this, the community and neighboring villages having been fed up of the gang members formed a resistance group and attacked the gang members and burned down some of their houses. PPC Tamari was on the ground this morning with Member for Wewak Stanley Samban to assess the situation. He said the community has grown tired of Masi and his gang members and formed a resistance group and fought back. There was a gunfight between Masi and the resistance group which resulted in two of his men Masi himself sustained bullet wounds and is now in hiding in the bush, while three members of the community resistance group also suffered minor injuries from the gunfight. They are now assisting police to hunt the suspects down and arrest them. “Because of Masi and his team, the community rose up, they all mobilized. All the neighbouring villages from Lowom, Sowom, But, Balam, and Tauk, everybody rose up and formed a resistance group." "They called me, their leader called me, and I said, go ahead. So, they formed a resistance group, and they assisted the police in a manhunt. That's exactly what we were doing now.” Tamari said the gang came out to continue their attacks but were met with resistance, police were late to respond due to the ongoing fuel shortage in the province. He said Masi and two of his men had been badly wounded and like wouldn’t survive for long out in the bushes. “The frustration, all the communities have gathered together and are throwing their support to eliminate all the bad apples, let me put it this way. So, as we speak, the police have been assisted greatly by the local communities, and I have given them the green light to help wherever they can and that's basically for now." "The member and I are here on the ground along the West Coast Highway and I'm positive that anytime from now, they should be apprehended, dead or alive.” [caption id="attachment_60999" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Photo by PPC Tamari[/caption] PPC Tamari said Husek is one of 87 prisoners released after they filed a Human Rights application. They were released by Justice David Cannings in November last year due to overcrowding health concerns. He said among those released were hardcore criminals known for murder, rape and other violent crimes. “Because of the overcrowding, health conditions, and the condition of the whole facility, they did an HR application and they were released,” said PPC Tamari. He added that one of the reasons why the prison was full was because he ensured lawbreakers faced the full force of the law. “When I took command in early 2023, I enforced the rule of law. No compensation, no blood money, if you're wrong, you go to Boram, so we were getting good convictions. But the number (prisoners) was increasing, and because of the number of suspects that were entering Boram, the commander was requesting that I slow down but I said no, I'm here to do a job.” He added Masi surrendered to him and Member Stanley Samban last year and pledged that he would stop doing criminal activities but instead, he led his men to kill the two victims over the weekend. The travelling public along the West Coast highway has been made aware, the situation has calmed down and police are on site to hunt the suspects and bring them in. PPC Tamari thanked his men for responding to the call and also the community for forming the resistance and helping police hunt down Masi and his gang members.