Insurgents shoot dead village official
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The assistant of a village headman was shot dead while driving home in Narathiwat's Rangae district yesterday morning in what police believe is part of ongoing violence in the South targeting state employees.
Pol Lieutenant Akkaphan Buasamlee, duty officer at the Rangae police station, said Suema-nga Yusoh, 47, was killed while driving down Pa Phai-Tanyong Limo Road by two gunmen who reportedly approached the car to shoot him at close range. Police found 18 spent cartridges at the scene and have sent the body for autopsy at Rangae Hospital. Suema-nga worked as an assistant to Ban Mae Nae headman in Muang district’s tambon Manang Tayor.
In a separate incident, suspected insurgents fired M79 grenades at a checkpoint on Yarang-Ma-Yor Road in Ban Moung Wan of Pattani’s Ma-Yor district at 1am yesterday but nobody was injured.
At 9am yesterday, police discovered a motorcycle containing a 5-kilogram bomb parked along the No 42 Pattani-Songkhla Road near a mosque in Nong Chik district. Apparently the bomb had partially exploded, police said, adding that the motorcycle, carrying a fake licence plate, had been reported stolen a few months ago. The motorcycle had reportedly been parked since Thursday in what police suspect was part of the insurgents’ attempt to create chaos ahead of the New Year holidays.
