Eight injured in Narathiwat car bomb attack

Sungai Kolok district police chief Pol Colonel Maitree Chimcherd said the explosion occurred at 6.15am in front of an electrical appliance shop, causing fire to break out in shop houses nearby. It took 10 fire engines more than three hours to put out the blaze.
The owner of a mobile phone shop and three of his family members had to be rescued from the rooftop.
Investigators found the wreckage of an Isuzu pickup truck at the scene, and police believe insurgents had hidden a 50kilogram bomb stuffed inside a cooking gas cylinder in the truck. Three vehicles and a motorcycle parked nearby were also damaged in the blast.
Police say insurgents had stolen the pickup truck in an ambush last November, during which they shot and killed the two occupants. They added that the licence plate used for the pickup truck was authentic but belonged to another vehicle that was stolen after an ambush on June 21, during which the owner was killed.
Meanwhile, the eight people injured in yesterday’s blast were passersby on their way home after shopping at a fresh market nearby. They were immediately rushed to the district hospital.
Police believe the bomb, detonated with a walkietalkie, was targeting a patrol car of policemen from Sungai Kolok police station. Nobody in the patrol car was hurt.
An arrest warrant has been issued for a man believed to be an insurgent leader active in Sungai Kolok and Sungai Padi districts. Police are keeping the suspect’s identity secret to prevent him from going into hiding. Police have also found a SIM card at the scene and are extracting all call records.
Separately, a military source released the identities of two men believed to be behind yesterday’s attack as Allahwuddin Sokoh and Nasri Mueree, who have allegedly been on the run for four years.
Security in Narathiwat and the business district in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district had been heightened and will remain high throughout the monthlong Ramadan period, which began yesterday.