Makassar – Five unmarried couples were netted by the Makassar Metropolitan District Police (Polrestabes) Women and Child Protection (PPA) Unit during a sweep operation of boarding houses in the South Sulawesi provincial capital that are often cited as places of immorality.
Makassar Polrestabes criminal investigation unit chief Police Assistant Superintendent Reonald Simanjuntak said that they conducted the operation at three locations, namely on Jalan Ance Daeng Ngoyo, Jalan Urip Sumoharjo and Jalan Boulevard.
During the operation, officers found a vocalist from a local band together with their partner in a boarding house room. It was known that the pair were not married so they were taken in by police.
"There were five couples that we found and one of the couples admitted that they were an entertainment singer at a local cafe in Makassar", said Simanjuntak on Saturday December 3. In addition to this, police also arrested a couple who were still students.
Having netting the five unmarried couples, the Makassar Polrestabes PPA will coordinate with the Makassar municipal government.
"We are coordinating with the regional government, because there are bylaws on relationships outside of marriage", said Simanjuntak. "We'll look into it again for online prostitution", he said.
Simanjuntak explained that the sweep operation of boarding houses was held because of widespread incidents of infants being abandoned in Makassar City recently. According to Simanjuntak, it was a preventative measure for the future.
"Because of widespread abortions in Makassar, we've been finding the corpses of many infants and babies in Makassar. So we took preventative measures related to this", he said in conclusion. (mir/chri)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "5 Pasangan Non Suami-Istri di Makassar Terjaring Sweeping Indekos".]
