Thread: Thai South: Five dead in southern shootings

Five dead in southern shootings | Bangkok Post: news

Five dead in southern shootings

• Published: 29/09/2012 at 07:00 PM
• Online news: Local News

A spate of shootings across the far South on Saturday left five people dead, including one police officer, and several injured.

The policeman, Sen Sgt Maj Mustorfa Laehae, 44, of Pattani police station, was killed in a drive-by shooting on a local road in Ban Sue Dung in Sai Buri district of Pattani yesterday morning, police said.

Pol Lt Preecha Chaengkloy, duty officer at Sai Buri police station, said Pol Sen Sgt Maj Mustorfa was shot in the head and died later in hospital.

In Yala's Muang district, a woman was killed and her husband seriously injured in a drive-by shooting.



Military officers patrol near a market in Pattani on Friday, where merchants were on edge amid reports that radicals would target businesses that failed to observe the Muslim holy day.

The victims were identified as Saowaluck Sitthiphan, 29, of Ban Na Tham in Muang district, and her husband Prinya Sitthiphan, 31, a technician at the Yala irrigation office, said Pol Lt-Col Charas Chinapong, deputy chief of Muang Yala police station.

The victims were travelling on a motorcycle around 8am on a local road in Ban Kampan of tambon Tha Sab when a gunman riding pillion on another motorcycle fired at them with a handgun. The attackers then fled.

Saowaluck was shot in the back, while her husband took a bullet in his right shoulder.

A rescue team took the couple to Yala hospital, where Saowaluck was later pronounced dead. Her husband survived but is in a serious condition.

Also in Yala, another woman was shot and seriously wounded in a drive-by shooting on the Yala-Batong road at Ban Ka Sode in Bannang Sata district yesterday morning.

Duangnate Kamsri, 34, of tambon Tham Thalu of Bannang Sata, was shot in the torso and taken to Bannang Sata hospital.

In Yaha district, Kuem Sukkarn, 72, a resident of tambon Tachi, was shot to death as he rode his motorcycle to a local market yesterday afternoon.

In Muang district of Pattani, a traditional medicine trader was shot and killed outside the central mosque in the late morning.

Mama Arwae, 43, was selling medicine at his stall when two men on a motorcycle fired shots at him. Police said Mama worked as a police informant.

In Narathiwat, a woman was killed and her husband severely wounded in a gun attack on their pickup truck in Rueso district yesterday afternoon.

Police said Sunthorn Nakthong, 50, was driving his wife, Jittima, through Ban Tango Patae village when an unknown group of gunmen opened fire at their vehicle.

Police said the attackers used M16 rifles as shells from weapons were found in the victims' pickup. Jittima tried to shoot back with a rifle but was outgunned. She died at the scene from gunshot wounds.

Mr Sunthorn was also shot and is in serious condition at Rueso Hospital.

As well as the spate of gun attacks, a bomb also went off in Pattani, though no one was injured.

The device exploded near a bridge on the Narathiwat-Pattani road in tambon Manang Dahae early yesterday morning.

Police found a note at the site of the blast saying "Welcome to the explosive ordnance disposal unit", which was believed to have been left by the assailant.

The 5kg bomb, detonated remotely by a mobile phone, was thought to have been intended to topple a nearby power pole in order to put an obstacle on the road to hinder the security patrol. The insurgents could then launch an attack on the patrol officers, police said.

Since the resurgence of the insurgency in January 2004, there have been about 11,000 violent incidents in the Muslim-majority southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Almost 5,000 people have been killed and nearly 8,000 injured.

Srisompob Jitpiromsri, director of the Deep South Watch (DSW), an independent research group, said that as many as 90% of traders in some areas of the far South stopped work on Friday as a result of an insurgents' threats.

He said people were also scared that the government was unable to provide them adequate security protection.

Merchants in Pattani municipality were worried by reports that Runda Kumpulan Kecil separatists would attack shops that do not close on Friday, the Muslim day of rest and prayer for Muslims.

Shopkeepers said they were anxious to see how the authorities would deal with continuing security woes.

"They should care more about the safety of people trying to make ends meet like us. We shouldn't be living in fear," said one small trader who declined to be named.

Plainclothes and uniformed police officers were deployed in the city on Friday as a measure to tighten security.

Only 50 out of 150 public shuttle vans operated from Muang district of Narathiwat to Sungai Kolok district and to nearby Yala, Pattani and Songkhla provinces on Friday.