2 Narathiwat soldiers killed, anti-govt banners raised
Two soldiers were shot dead and set on fire inside their pickup truck in Narathiwat's Rusoh district yesterday, while insurgency sympathisers put up banners attacking the government in four other districts as well as in the neighbouring province of Patta
Corporal Prasit Nakarareung and Private Yusob Tehlee of the Narathiwat 30th Special Task Force were returning to an outpost after completing an errand at around 11am, when unknown gunmen ambushed them in tambon Batong.
The attackers shot them, poured petrol on their corpses and set them on fire before fleeing. Police collected spent M16 bullets from the scene.
In Sungai Padi district, a protest banner and a suspicious item in a black bag were spotted at 6.30am at the Toh Deng train station. A similar item was found in the middle of the railway tracks 50 metres away. Though the bomb squad found them both to be hoax bombs, the train service was still delayed for five hours.
Banners attacking the government were spotted in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok, Rangae, Si Sakhon and Bacho districts as well as in Pattani’s Nong Chik, Ma-Yor, Yarang, Thung Yang Daeng, Khok Pho, Yaring and Muang districts.
Colonel Pramote Phrom–in, spokesman of the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 Forward Command, said the banners wrongly accused state officials in the course of their duties of violating human rights and disturbing the public as the Ramadan holy month nears an end. Separately, on Wednesday night, villager Sugri Mamu, 38, was shot dead in Pattani’s Yarang district in an attack police believe may have been motivated by a personal conflict or maybe part of the ongoing unrest.
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