Fourth victim of Narathiwat blasts dies

Authorities dispatched two teams to hunt for the perpetrators along the Malaysian border, and suggested the attacks might have been retaliation by a drug syndicate for a recent anti-narcotics operation.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday sent deputy police chief General Adul Saengsingkaew to oversee efforts to tackle the unrest in the deep South. Declining to speculate on whether the timing of the attack was related to the recent change in government, Yingluck said she would discuss ways to restore peace in the three southernmost provinces with Interior Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit and Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha later yesterday. She said she would seek cooperation from neighbouring countries, adding that officials in the South would be allowed to keep their jobs and that she didn't want to make changes too hastily.

Yesterday morning, police continued to inspect the three bombing sites: outside the 198 karaoke bar, where a motorcycle bomb was detonated; the Tae Chiew Clan charity association, site of another motorcycle bomb; and outside the Merlin Hotel, where a car-bomb was detonated. Police suspected the attackers comprised four teams, one to plant each bomb and a fourth to detonate them, possibly from a hotel room with a clear view of all three spots. Police were checking security cameras placed along the road for evidence of the suspects, who are believed to be Runda Kumpalan Kecil (RKK) sympathisers hired by drug syndicates in the area to carry out the attack in retaliation for a major drug bust. The RKK is a Malay nationalist group blamed for violence in the South.

There were 78 casualties in the three bomb attacks. Besides the three Malaysian tourists - including a 3-year-old boy - who died at the scene, rescue worker Seksan Rojpasiri, 38, later succumbed to his injuries. Forty of the 74 injured people remained hospitalised as of yesterday. Seven were in serious condition, some with broken limbs and some with burns to more than 50 per cent of their bodies, at Yala Central Hospital and Songkhla Nakarin University Hospital.

Defence Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapha and Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 deputy chief Maj-General Akkhara Thiproj shared the view that the bombing of the commercial and tourist area was the work of insurgent sympathisers who had joined with illicit drug syndicates for the purposes of getting money, challenging state power, discrediting the government and intimidating people. Akkhara said the attack was most likely in retaliation for a major drug bust in Sungai Kolok on Tuesday, as the authorities had found videos relating to the southern unrest on a seized cell phone, along with a list of people thought to be involved in drug dealing and another list of names connected with oil-smuggling bribes. Akkhara said two teams were hunting for the attackers, while security along the Thai-Malaysian border had been beefed up and immigration police put on alert to prevent those responsible from fleeing the country.

Isoc chief and Region 4 Army commander Lt-General Udomchai Thammasarorat said security would be tightened in Sungai Kolok to prevent more attacks, and that officers would continue to crack down on the trade in illicit items that is reportedly funding the unrest.

Shaken Sungai Kolok residents said the attacks were the most severe to have hit the district. Resident Anchalee Udomsilpa said this was the worst incident since the unrest erupted in 2004. "I can still feel the shaking caused by the third bomb, which was followed by a blackout. I was so frightened; I didn't know where the bomb had gone off, only that it was near," she recalled.

In the neighbouring province of Pattani, security officials set up checkpoints in 12 districts around the clock to look for suspicious vehicles, as intelligence officials warned of possible further attacks in busy areas of Pattani town. Meanwhile, 29-year-old paramilitary volunteer ranger Anan Rattana, the sole survivor of Thursday's ambush on his six-strong team in Pattani's Ka Pho district, was recovering from serious injuries and expected to be taken off a respirator today.