You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Southeast Asia
Huge explosion from truck bomb injures dozens in Deep South
2022-11-23
[BenarNews] A truck-bomb explosion outside apartments housing police potted a policeman and injured more than 30 other people in Thailand’s troubled Deep South on Tuesday, including a 1-year-old, authorities said.

At least two suspects were caught on closed-circuit cameras moments before the bomb-rigged pickup truck went kaboom! near the building that houses 50 coppers and their families in Mueang Narathiwat, a district of Narathiwat province, the chief of the provincial cop shoppe said.

"The man in a gray-collar shirt with a handgun in his waist holster got out of a pickup truck and another man on a cycle of violence gave him a lift and expeditiously departed at a goodly pace," said police Col. Jeffrey Salaimankul, chief of the Narathiwat station.

The blast was the biggest explosion to rock the Deep South after a series of Molotov cocktail and arson attacks last week that Thai officials blamed on separatist rebels in the border region.

Police identified the dead Narathiwat station officer as Capt. Suthirak Pantaniya. At least 31 people who were maimed in Tuesday’s explosion were treated at Narathiwat Hospital, officials said, adding that their injuries were non-life threatening.

About 10 fire trucks along with a bomb squad and rescue workers rushed to the scene to extinguish the blaze, inspect the site and take the injured to the hospital, police said.

Members of the bomb squad found remnants of a 50-kilo (110-pound) homemade bomb in the wreckage of the truck, police said, adding that debris flew as far as 200 meters (656 feet) from the blast site.

Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN),
...the largest group in the Thai insurgency in the southern Thai provinces that make up the old Patani sultanate...
the most powerful of armed separatist groups in the Deep South, declined to comment on the attack Tuesday. The secretive organization is known for not claiming responsibility for attacks.

A security official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to news hounds told BenarNews that the bombing followed the killing of an krazed killer in Nong Chik, a district in another Deep South’s province of Pattani, two weeks ago.

A regional military command front man, meanwhile, said the bombing matched a pattern.

"As everyone knows the cause. The perpetrators always try to conduct violence like other cases involving carjacking and boom-mobileing," said Col. Kiatisak Neewong, front man for the military’s ISOC-4 in the Deep South.

Since a separatist insurgency reignited in the Deep South in January 2004, at least 7,344 people have been killed and 13,641 injured in violence across the mainly Moslem and Malay-speaking border region, according to data updated through March 2022 by Deep South Watch, a local think-tank.

The region encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala provinces, and four districts of Songkhla province.

Thai officials and BRN began Malaysia-brokered peace negotiations in early 2020 — following years of talks between the government and MARA Patani, an umbrella group that brought together Deep South krazed killer groups, including BRN.

The sixth face-to-face negotiation scheduled for this month has been delayed because of the Malaysian general election last weekend, according to negotiators for both sides.
Related:
Narathiwat province: 2022-08-19 Fire bombs, other blasts rock Thai Deep South
Narathiwat province: 2022-08-17 Insurgents suspected of landmine attack targeting rubber farmers in Deep South
Narathiwat province: 2022-07-09 Troops kill 2 linked to PULO militant group in Thai Deep South
Related:
Barisan Revolusi Nasional: 2022-11-17 Thai authorities step up APEC security after Deep South bombings
Barisan Revolusi Nasional: 2022-11-05 Thailand launches surveillance of BRN rebels ahead of APEC meetings
Barisan Revolusi Nasional: 2022-10-28 BRN rebels, Thai military spar over identity of body found in border river
Related:
Nong Chik: 2022-08-19 Fire bombs, other blasts rock Thai Deep South
Nong Chik: 2019-10-08 Thai court approves detention of suspected militant
Nong Chik: 2019-05-30 Three Killed in Ramadan Violence in Restive Thai South
Posted by:trailing wife

00:00