Insurgents 'plotting attacks' in Songkhla
Insurgents are plotting attacks in key areas of Songkhla's Hat Yai and Muang districts, according to Songkhla Governor Krissada Boonraj.
“I have received information from reliable sources,” Krissada said.
He said he had instructed district chiefs to convene meetings of local kamnan and village heads to press for strict monitoring of strangers arriving in their areas.
“We have to be on alert,” he said.
Security measures have been beefed up, partly because a car bomb injured several victims and caused about Bt100 million in property damage in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok last Friday.
Krissada said he did not intend to cause public panic but it was necessary that everyone be watchful.
Fourth Army Region chief Lt-General Udomchai Thammasaroj said the recent car-bomb attack underlined the need to step up security measures in the deep South.
Sungai Kolok Police Station superintendent Colonel Maitree Chimcherd said three teams were set up to work on this case. He said the first would gather evidence. The second was assigned to track down five suspects. The third was to conduct campaigns to win locals’ co-operation in providing tip-offs about suspects to authorities.
“An investigation suggests that the insurgents might have made bombs in Sungai Kolok district to avoid checkpoints manned along the shared borders with other districts,” Maitree said.
An informed source disclosed that the Royal Thai Army (RTA) approved plans to procure two types of bomb detectors under a Bt45-million budget.
“The devices will be used in place of the GT200 bomb detectors that have already proved ineffective,” the source said.
It added that the first type of bomb detectors were Fido-XT and Spectrex.
In Narathiwat’s Bacho district, police inspected two used-vehicle dealerships to search for links to insurgents who were behind last Friday’s bomb attack.
The vehicle used in the recent bomb attack was stolen and their original owner was killed.
A source said the Southern Border Provinces Police Bureau was offering Bt100,000 cash rewards per vehicle to police stations that could locate six stolen vehicles in cases where their owners were also murdered.
