Polisi Setapkan 46 Tersangka Karhutla Riau

National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo (ANTARA/HO-Humas Polri)

National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo said that currently 46 people have been named as suspects in the case of forest and land fires (Karhutla) in Riau Province.

"Several activities carried out in the context of law enforcement efforts have now also been carried out, the Regional Police Chief reported that 46 suspects have now been detained who have been processed for arson," Sigit said in a statement quoted by ANTARA, Thursday, July 24.

The National Police Chief said that currently the Riau Police are still investigating the modus operandi of the suspects in the case of forest and land fires.

"Is this intentional or negligent, so this results in approximately 280 hectares of burned land," he said.

The National Police Chief also said that the Karhutla Task Force had made various efforts to extinguish the hotspots. He hopes that this effort will bear fruit soon.

"Then the efforts made by the team, starting from the water bombing to the modification of the OMC, will continue to be carried out, hopefully the OMC can run optimally so that in the next period we hope that there will be rain, especially at points that are indeed hot spots," said the National Police Chief.

Sigit also said that his party would deploy helicopters to extinguish hotspots in several areas using the water bombing method, especially in difficult-to-reach areas.

"But on the other hand, there are areas that we have carried out monitoring in Rokan Hulu in hilly areas so that they can only be reached using water bombing. This was also conveyed in the near future. He will add helicopters to carry out water bombing, hopefully this can help immediately extinguish it," he said.