Police seek 10 arrest warrants for deep South raid
Police have sought arrest warrants for 10 individuals suspected of having been involved in the robbery of multiple pickup trucks, kidnappings and murder in Songkhla last week, said deputy police commissioner Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul on Monday.
Later in the afternoon, Songkhla’s provincial court in Na Thawi district approved arrest warrants for five of the suspects – Bukhori Lamsoh, Rosari Lamsoh, Sulaiman Samoh, Sarisan-Hamri Deuramae and Asnan Sa-ei.
Four of the suspects reportedly had known links to insurgency in the South while Asnan did not have a previous record, a police source said.
Srivara and other senior police officers on Monday morning boarded a Fokker aircraft to travel from the Thai Police Aviation Division’s Police Wing (Don Mueang) in Bangkok for the Bor Thong Airport in Pattani’s Nong Chik district.
After they landed at Bor Thong, Srivara’s team held a meeting with Southern Border Provinces Police chief Pol Lt-General Ronnasilp Phusara, Pattani police chief Pol Maj-General Piyawat Chalermsri and case investigators.
Srivara said Pattani police would seek arrest warrants from the Pattani provincial court for five suspects who allegedly were involved in the violence incidents in Pattani in addition to the arrest warrants sought from the Na Thawi court for five more suspects. He added that police had solid evidence including witnesses and DNA test results to justify the warrants.
The suspected insurgents’ brazen daylight theft of six pickups from the Wangto Car Centre in Na Thawi last Wednesday led to a dramatic series of events, including the kidnapping of four employees, one of whom was fatally shot in Na Thawi, a gunfight in Songkhla’s Thepa district in which one suspect was killed and the detonation of a car bomb in one of the pickups in Nong Chik.
The suspects also stole the pickup of a Songkhla resident, bringing the total number of stolen vehicles to seven.