Soldier killed as series of attacks staged in Narathiwat
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A soldier was killed and many others injured when a bomb exploded in Narathiwat's Rusoh district at 4.55pm yesterday.
Details were still unavailable as of press time.
Just an hour and a half earlier, a blast erupted in the province’s Sungai Padi district, injuring self-defence volunteer Anan Kamon, who sustained minor injuries to his right leg when shrapnel struck a car carrying him and the assistant chief district officer of Sungai Padi.
They were on their way to join Army Rangers in conducting a search of an area where suspicious activities had been reported. They were following a police patrol car when the blast occurred.
Crater in the road
The explosion took place on Sungai Padi-Sakor Road at around 3.20pm, blowing a 50-centimetre-deep hole in the road surface.
Police believe the bomber had been hiding nearby and triggered the blast when the official vehicles arrived. About 10 kilograms of explosives were used, officials said.
Sungai Padi Police Station inspector Pol Lt-Colonel Sopon Janchote, who was in the patrol car, believed the blast was linked to the insurgent violence in the deep South.
A white banner reading “Peace will thrive when Pattani gets its independence” hung over the scene of another explosion in Narathiwat yesterday morning.
The explosion occurred just as a police patrol team stopped at the spot to check the banner.
No one was injured or killed.
“When we stopped to check, an explosion took place,” Yi-ngor Police Station deputy inspector-general Pol Lieutenant Surat Muenwai said.
The incident took place at around 8.40am.
The blast caused a crater about 60cm deep and 80cm wide. The explosives, which police estimated must have weighed around 25kg, were stuffed inside a cooking-gas cylinder.
In a separate incident earlier in the day, unknown assailants used an M79 grenade launcher to attack a spot near the official residence of Somwang Ruangpeng, the chief of Narathiwat’s Rangae district. The grenade attack caused no casualties.
Exchange of fire
On Thursday night, armed men opened fire on the base of Ranger Battalion 4113 in Yala’s Raman district.
On-duty rangers exchanged gunfire with the attackers for about five minutes before they retreated.
According to an informed source, security agencies have instructed all units in the deep South to be on alert.
Key members of the Pemuda movement in Malaysia reportedly instructed their teams to stage ambush shootings and explosions in the southern border provinces between March 28 and April 4 to express the group’s opposition to ongoing peace talks between Thai authorities and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional group in Kuala Lumpur.
On Thursday, three volunteer rangers were killed in an attack in Narathiwat’s Joh I Rong district. Three of their colleagues were also injured.
Narathiwat police chief Pol Maj-General Wichai Kasemwong said police were now questioning four men suspected of playing a role in that attack.
