Yuthasak and Prayuth in South today
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Deputy Prime Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha, who oversees national security affairs, and Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha will visit the deep South today to try to lift people's morale after a series of attacks in the strife-torn region in recent days.
Yuthasak said he planned to give instructions on various issues to related agencies during his visit and that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra had urged him to boost officials’ morale and review the set-up of checkpoints, as well as equipment being used, and report back to her.
Tomorrow is the anniversary of the Tak Bai drama in 2004, when 85 men died after a mass protest at the police station turned into a riot. Most of the victims suffocated in the back of trucks while being transported to an Army base after being arrested.
In Tak Bai yesterday, police were checking security camera footage before issuing warrants to arrest people involved in attacks at five locations in the district of Narathiwat province last Saturday night, which led to the death of one insurgent, Abdul-Hadim Mama, and three others being injured.
Initially, they found four suspicious men on two bikes, including Abdul-Hadim’s elder brother Mustofa Mama, 30, who was already wanted for national security cases, Tak Bai superintendent Pol Colonel Saneh Janyasathit said. But they had yet to see footage of Abdul-Hadim and another man on a third motorcycle.
Tak Bai district chief Somsak Sitthiworakan alleged that illegal gasoline merchants who had lost money from Thai officials’ heavy crackdown on the illegal trade in the region hired leading members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) terror group to launch attacks on October 20. Abdul-Hadim, a Tambon Koh Saton resident also wanted for many security cases in Tak Bai, had worked in illegal fuel trafficking for an investor, so the crackdown-affected illegal oil investors might have hired his group to launch attacks in Tak Bai, he said.
Marine Police 4 Station was hit by a gun and grenade attack last Saturday but officers survived, partly because two M26 grenades thrown at the station didn’t go off. Yesterday they set up a bunker made of cement, pipes and sand around the station building to block attacks in the future.
Meanwhile, a State Railway official was shot dead in Khok Pho in Pattani yesterday. Two men on a motorbike shot at Likhit Insingthong, 41, six times while he rode his motorbike to work at Tambon Na Pradu Train Station at 8.10am, killing him instantly.
Police suspect insurgents did this to avenge the death of Aliya Paete, 23, who was killed by Thai security officials on Sunday during an attempt to arrest suspects in Khok Pho.
