Police on hunt for injured arsonists

Security authorities yesterday searched hospitals and health stations for injured arsonists who had fled after a gunfight with rangers on Sunday night while trying to set on fire a local organisation’s offices in Pattani’s Yarang district.
They urged members of the public spotting anyone with gunshot wounds to alert the police.
The deep South continues to suffer from violence despite a peace dialogue, being brokered in Malaysia, between the Thai government and separatists in the restive region.
In the latest incident, suspected insurgents and their sympathisers caused chaos in 13 locations across four Pattani districts on Sunday night.
Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 yesterday reported that Yarang district had been the scene of eight incidents, including the burning down of a one-storey wooden office building belonging to the Tambon Prajan Administrative Organisation, the torching of the two-storey office of the Tambon Khlong Mai Administrative Organisation, and an arson attack that damaged 30 per cent of tambon Yarang’s office building.
At 8.50pm on Sunday, patrolling rangers were involved in a gunfight with insurgents who tried to burn down the Tambon Kolam Administrative Organisation’s office, but the suspects fled, leaving behind blood traces suggesting some of them had been injured in the exchange.
There were also two incidents in Nong Chik district: the burning down of the Tambon Datoh Administrative Organisation’s offices, and an arson attack that slightly damaged tambon Kolo Tanyong’s agricultural technology centre.
Another three arson attacks took place in Ma-Yor district. One totally burned down the Tambon Sakhobon Administrative Organisation’s office building, another caused 30-per-cent damage to tambon Sakhotai’s offices, and a third caused 60-per-cent damage to tambon Pado’s office.
In Mae Lan district, Total Access Communication (DTAC) cellular signal posts in tambons Moungtia and Parai were slightly damaged by fire.

THAKSIN’S ‘GOOD INTENTIONS’
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sukhampol Suwannathat yesterday said he believed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra had acted with good intentions if he had indeed talked with Hassan Taib, liaison office chief of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional. BRN is representing the insurgents in the peace dialogue.
While acknowledging that the unrest in the region had continued over the past month despite the dialogue, he insisted the discussions would go on.
Moreover, the fact that Malaysia’s ruling National Front coalition had won the weekend’s general election should benefit the dialogue, he added.
In related news, the police investigation into a roadside bomb attack that killed one soldier and wounded four others in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district on Sunday has identified as prime suspects two men with a number of previous national-security warrants issued against them.
Police are searching for Mahama Maeroh and Abdulloh Yunu, who are believed to be lying low in the district.
In another case, security officials at the Narathiwat 30 Special Task Force military base yesterday summoned for investigation Maswan Longsa, 26, on suspicion that he had conspired with five others to launch five bomb attacks in Yala’s Muang district on April 7-8.
Maswan, a local resident, protested his innocence.
Officials collected DNA samples from Maswan for comparison with those found at the scenes of the attacks, before sending him for interrogation at the 41st Rangers Company base in Yala.
A source said an initial investigation had also identified |three other men involved in the bomb attacks, and that they would also be summoned soon.
Meanwhile, Boonsom Sriplai, president of the Confederation of Teachers of the Three Southern Border Provinces, yesterday said his group would soon talk with the Army Region 4 chief about the beefing up of security measures for teachers’ protection ahead of the new school term next week.