A BOMB blast killed two security volunteers and injured four others in Pattani province yesterday.

Several other violent incidents were also reported in other parts of the deep South, but no further fatalities were inflicted. The fatal attack occurred at about 9.10am as six security volunteers were patrolling a road to provide protection to teachers in Pattani’s Mai Kaen district.  The squad visited a roadside pavilion to check the area when a pipe bomb was triggered remotely.

Kwanchai Yod-iad and Mukalis Lateh were killed at the scene.  The four other security volunteers survived the attack with minor injuries.

An explosive ordnance disposal team that rushed to the scene said the pipe bomb must have contained between 25 and 30 kilograms of explosives.  All three motorcycles used by the security volunteers were damaged and the blast left a big hole, measuring about one metre wide and 80 centimetres deep, at the scene. Pattani’s deputy police chief Pol Colonel Jeeraset Dao-ngern-trakul said police believed the explosion was part of the ongoing unrest in the South. 

Violence has continued in Thailand’s southernmost region since the insurgency renewed activity in 2004, with the bloodshed blamed for thousands of deaths and attacks on almost a daily basis.  In Pattani province, security officials also detected a fake bomb in Pattani’s Mayor district after a suspicious box was left at a crowded market, causing panic.  Officials had to cordon off a road to inspect and destroy the box.  However, it was found that the box contained only electric wires and a clock.  Authorities believed the fake bomb was planted to incite fear.

Meanwhile, an attacker riding a motorcycle threw a pipe bomb at security personnel at an Army post in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district yesterday. Malay Muslim insurgents were blamed for the 5.30am attack. The bomb exploded against the wall of a restroom rather than inside soldiers’ sleeping quarters.  The post is in the village of Puyu in Tambon Koh Sathon.

Witnesses said two insurgents appeared on a motorcycle and the pillion rider threw the bomb before they drove off. In another area of Narathiwat, insurgents detonated another bomb hidden in a motorcycle in an ambush employing two bombs, but the second timed device was defused. The targeted area was an intersection on a bypass road in Sungai Kolok district. Following the first explosion at 5.20am, Sungai Kolok district chief Preecha Nualnoi and Sungai Kolok police chief Colonel Prayuth Pongsanti arrived at the scene with soldiers and forensic and bomb disposal officers.  They found the second time bomb hidden in the second motorcycle, which was left near the first exploded bike, and used a water gun to detonate the device.

Source:
courtesy of BANGKOK POST

by PAREZ LOHASAN

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