The technicians were repairing a telecommunications tower operated by the country's largest carrier Telkomsel in Beoga district on Wednesday when members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) attacked them, police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said on Friday.
Another worker found the bodies the following day and reported the incident to authorities, he said.
The TPNPB, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.
"We shot dead eight people. One person fell into a ravine when we shot him, so we don't know his fate," the group said in a statement.
The armed group urged the Indonesian government to stop a planned gold mine at the Wabu Block in Intan Jaya district, close a gold and copper mine operated by US-based Freeport McMoRan and bring rights violators to justice.
"As long as ...Freeport is still running, we will continue to fight and fight until the last drop of our blood," the group said.
Oi December 2018, 20 people were killed when separatist rebels attacked workers building the trans-Papua highway.
Papua, on the western half of New Guinea island, has been the scene of a separatist insurgency since the 1960s.
The mainly Melanesian region was incorporated into Indonesia in a UN-administered ballot in 1969.
22°C