Ex-Security Council chief links recent attacks to BRN militants
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FORMER NATIONAL Security Council chief Lt-General Paradorn Pattanathabutr warned Tuesday that the government should not rule out the possibility of the BRN playing a role in the recent bomb and arson attacks in the South.
Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), or “National Revolutionary Front”, is a Patani independence movement.
“I do not think you can overlook BRN. It has the potential to carry out such coordinated attacks and many factors point to it as the group responsible for the recent attacks,” Paradorn said in an analysis written under the pseudonym “Seh Maew”.
Paradorn has maintained a low profile after the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) took control of the country in May 2014. He was transferred to an inactive post before the NCPO coup, paving the way for Thawil Pliensri to be reinstated in accordance with the Administrative Court’s ruling.
The court ruled that former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s order to transfer Thawil was illegal.
Paradorn has only emerged from two-year silence after the recent bomb attacks shocked the country.
“I believe the theory that BRN is stepping up and spreading its operations bears more weight than political motives [as suggested by the government],” he said.
He added that he was confident of his theory because of the depth of his involvement in addressing the insurgency in the South. He once led a government delegation to hold peace talks with BRN in 2013.
“I felt something was wrong when Malaysia decided to seal its border before the attacks. The telephone signals used in detonating the bombs had come from Malaysia,” he claimed.
