41 killed, 47 injured in deep South last month
Sixty-seven violent incidents took place in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat from November 1-30, killing 41 people and injuring 47, Prince of Songkhla University Pattani Campus's Deep South Watch reported yesterday.
The violence continued even yesterday. Pol Sr Sgt-Major Tuwaehami Nihae, 49, of Yaring district’s Ratapanyang Police Station, was shot dead at 7am in Pattani’s Muang district as he parked his motorbike at a food stall in front of Ban Puyud’s morning market on the Pattani-Yala Road.
Two men on a motorcycle approached and the gunman, riding pillon, shot the policeman three times before speeding away with Tuwaehami’s 9mm revolver, said Muang Pattani Police Station superintendent Pol Colonel Somporn Meesuk. Police suspected that the killing was carried out by southern insurgents to create daily chaos, although they did not rule out political motives as Tuwaehami was a relative and canvasser of Pattani Democrat MP Anwar Salae.
Meanwhile, in Pattani’s Ma Yor district, the police and a bomb squad inspected the retail military base at Ban Langsad School in Tambon Ka Sor, where suspected insurgents launched an M-79 grenade attack on Tuesday night. The school wall was damaged and Sgt-Major 1st class Somprat Srivaja, 34, sustained a head injury in the grenade explosion. The insurgents also fired a grenade at the house of Tambon Ka Sor village defence volunteer Maleepeng Hami, 34, located 1km from the school. The bomb slightly damaged the roof and killed a cat, but no one was injured.
