Insurgent threats prompt SIM check
National Police Chief General Adul Saengsingkaew is urging agencies to help police check SIM card registration information linked to suspected insurgents. Phone sellers were also asked to check applicants' documents strictly for registration of phone SIM
The requests follow reports that suspected insurgents are buying phones with SIM cards registered elsewhere to create violence in the deep South.
Adul met yesterday with senior police at the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Centre in Yala’s Muang district to develop security policies and to follow up on national-security cases.
He said the idea to set up a subdistrict-level police station in this restive region was a good one, as it would enable police to provide closer security for locals.
Royal Thai Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Narong Pipatanasai, on a visit to Narathiwat, expressed concern that insurgent sympathisers might make trouble ahead of the October 25 anniversary of the Tak Bai incident and urged officers to be prepared.
On that day nine years ago, many protesters rallying outside Tak Bai police station to oppose the detention of six people died during a crackdown.
Police yesterday checked the fingerprints of three people killed and another wounded in a clash between security officials and suspected insurgents in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district. They said fingerprints collected from three bodies – identified as the alleged leader of the Paku group in Pattani, Sakariya Jehmae, 43, and two subordinates, Manusi Kasa, 29, and Adul-rosi Salae, 26 – showed they had carried out many attacks before.
The captured suspect Abdul-roman Sala, 26, is in custody.
