Govt hopes to bring peace back to deep South
Play
PM's Office Minister Suwapan Tanyuwattana said yesterday that the government was hoping to restore peace in the deep South, adding that preparations were being made to conduct peace talks with insurgents.
He also said Thai security officers were working to narrow the chance for insurgents launching attacks in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces, where 1,000 insurgents were reportedly equipped with stolen weapons.
In related news, ranger Sergeant Thaweewat Onkwanphetch, 29, succumbed to fatal injuries yesterday that he sustained from a motorcycle bomb in front of the main train station in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district on Sunday.
Eyewitnesses described the two bomb suspects as men in their 20s dressed in Muslim attire. The bomb wounded nine people, including Thaweewat and two other rangers.
The ranger’s bathing rites were held at a temple in Narathiwat’s Muang district yesterday afternoon and his funeral was to be held in Songkhla’s Saba Yoi district. Maj-General Lerchai Maleerat, deputy chief of the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4’s front command presented a Bang Rajan medal and Bt1 million in assistance money to Thaweewat’s mother Nuloy. He was also prompted post-mortem to the post of colonel.
