A monk has been found murdered in a Kampong Cham rubber plantation, police said yesterday.

District police from the province’s Memot district said the body of 17-year-old monk Khin Kosal was thrown into a ditch in the plantation in Choam Kravien commune’s Lambau village. The corpse was found on Monday.

“On the body, there were wounds to his head and body which had been caused by an axe,” said Keo Kimneang, Memot district deputy police chief, yesterday.

Police had come to an initial conclusion that “the death resulted from a small argument before the victim became a monk”, he said.

Kampong Cham provincial police chief Nuon Samin has now ordered authorities to seek out the killers, said Keo Kimneang.

Officers had been looking for evidence, he said, but had yet to identify a suspect.

The dead monk had been living in Robangchros pagoda in Memot district’s Robongchros village, but originally came from Pursat province’s Boeung Khnar commune in Bakan district.

The head of the pagoda and the victim’s family could not be contacted for comment yesterday.

Great Supreme Patriarch, Tep Vong, said: “I was sorry to hear that there was a murder of a monk … because we are Buddhist, there should be no killing of each other.”

“In this case, I would like the authorities to take action in order to arrest the perpetrator and for them to be punished through the law.”

Keo Kimneang said that the victim’s body had been taken away for a funeral in the surroundings of Robongchus pagoda.