Yutthasak doubts shooting victims were innocent
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The military had no intention of harming innocent locals in a shooting incident in Pattani late Sunday night in which four Muslim villagers were killed and four others wounded, Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha said yesterday.
He asked why, if those killed and wounded were indeed villagers, a large number of war weapons were found in the pickup in which they were travelling.
“There was also a motorcycle, which carried an M-79 grenade launcher, involved in a shooting,” he said, referring to an M-79 attack on a security outpost in Nong Chik district prior to the fatal incident.
Yuthasak, who is tasked with national security, dismissed news reports that Army paramilitary rangers from 4302nd Company had fired at the speeding truck in panic.
“If they were villagers on the way to say prayers, why were they running away when asked to stop? An investigation into the incident is under way,” he added.
Major Akkhara Thiproj, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command’s forward post, said the military could confirm that one of the men fleeing on a motorcycle after launching M-79 grenades had then jumped onto the passing truck.
“There is also confirmation that the pickup shot at by rangers was the same one seen picking up a suspected attacker, not a different one,” he said.
“Coming to a conclusion at this point [after the M-79 incident], the attacker grabbed an opportunity to involve the occupants in the pursuit, with the purpose of using them as shields,” he added.
Akkhara acknowledged that the rangers had opened fire on the pickup during the pursuit, while Yuthasak insisted he did not believe the victims were innocent villagers.
At 10pm on Sunday, an M-79 grenade attack was launched on an outpost manned by Army rangers, wounding one of them.
The rangers, helped by other security officials setting up road checkpoints, launched a pursuit and found the suspected pickup, a silver Isuzu with a Pattani licence plate, being driven in the wrong direction down a one-way section of Route 418.
Gunfire then broke out, the spokesman said. Although he did not say clearly who had initiated it, there were no reports about shots having being fired from the vehicle.
An 18-year-old was among the four dead, and a 15-year-old among the four wounded, in addition to one person who was unscathed. All nine occupants were residents of Moo 1 of Tanyong Buloh, in tambon Puloh Puyoh.
The military prevented the media, police and civilian defence volunteers from entering the scene, before Nong Chik district chief Luechai Jaroensab managed to enter from the other direction one hour later and contacted ambulances for a medical evacuation.
An initial crime scene investigation found 26 spent AK-47 assault rifle cartridges, and 30 spent M-16 rifle cartridges.
The uninjured occupant of the pickup, aged 15, said all nine were heading for a charity event in another tambon.
Police sources said the rangers, perhaps panicking or overreacting, or both, had initiated the gunfight in the belief that the pickup had taken part in the M-79 grenade attack.
The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre later gave initial aid payments of Bt100,000 to the families of all four of the people who were killed and Bt10,000 to the families of the wounded. Director Thawee Songsong also pledged to investigate the incident, with the participation of outside observers including public prosecutors and villagers.
He told the villagers not to worry, because identifying the rifles from which the bullets were fired would be easy as the spent cartridges found at the scene had serial numbers on them. “Facts and the truth need to be made available for the sake of peace and reconciliation,” he said.
