Four people have been arrested at Mae La refugee camp on Burma’s border with Thailand for allegedly killing a policeman.

The arrested men have been identified as refugees from Burma and are all under the age of 25. The men were caught by an armed Karen group in Burma and handed over to police in Thailand on Tuesday.

According to the Mae La camp’s authorities, the men left the camp to buy some goats in a Karen village in Burma and encountered the policeman when they attempted to bring them back over the border. It was unclear what provoked the men to kill the policeman.

“The policeman asked if they were buying or selling the goats and they apparently told him they bought them to keep in the camp. The policeman told them not to use the road and the four Muslims murdered him,” said Mae La camp’s coordinator, Naing Oo.

The policeman’s body was found with stab wounds in the back and had been shot once.

The men attempted to flee across the border to Burma but Thai authorities contacted the Karen National Liberation Army-Peace Council (KNLA-PC), which was able to intercept and capture the group.

The dead policeman has been identified as Senior Sergeant Paithoon Sapeng, a crime suppression officer attached to Tha Song Yang police station.

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The accused have been named as Noor, 24; Kamal-din, 18; Musfi, 21; and Hoshe (age unknown).

Thai media reports say the four accused men have been detained and are being investigated by the Department of Special Investigations (DSI) in Tak District.

Reporting by DVB