Prajob's family: No cremation before justice

Prajob, a village headman in Tambon Nong Nae of Chachoengsao’s Phanom Sarakham district, was fatally shot on Monday.
Somsak Nednart, a member of Tambon Nong Nae Administrative Organisation, said yesterday it was agreed among Prajob’s relatives and comrades that his cremation would not take place until the masterminds behind his killing were exposed.
His body will be placed alongside that of Suthep Thongkham, another key activist against polluters. Suthep was gunned down in front of the Tambon Nong Nae Administrative Organisation in 2010.
“We believe the police will be able to nail down the culprits,” Somsak said.
He had much hope in the fact that Provincial Police Region II deputy commissioner Maj General Niwat Rattanathammawat has stepped in to closely supervise the investigation, which is now progressing well.
Somsak threatened to carry the coffin of Prajob, which was now at Wat Nong Bua, to Chachoengsao Provincial Hall if the investigation suspiciously slowed down later on.
Niwat said police were now gathering recordings from security cameras along the stretch from the work site supervised by Prajob on Monday to the garage where he was shot.
“The gunman might have followed him. So, we are going to review the recordings,” he said.
Prajob, 43, has left behind his wife and three children. His youngest son is a little over one-year old.
Prajob’s wife, Arunrat Naowa-opas, believed her husband was killed because he fought against the illegal dumping of toxic waste.
“I’d told him before that such activities were dangerous,” Arunrat lamented as she placed a graduate gown over Prajob’s picture.
It hung there at his funeral because he would no longer be able to wear it and attend the conferral ceremony on March 26.
“He went to the rehearsal but now he wouldn’t be able to attend the real day,” Arunrat said.
Prajob was a freshman graduate from the Sukhothai Thammatirat Open University’s Faculty of Political Science.