Bangkok (VNA) – Suspected
insurgents launched a series of coordinated attacks in Tak Bai district, the southern
border province of Narathiwa, Thailand on October 21, the country’s police force
said.
According to acting chief of the Tak Bai police
station, an improvised explosive device (IED), assembled inside a fire
extinguisher cylinder, was detonated outside a gold shop in tambon Chehe,
causing damage to the front part of the shop.
He said a group of unidentified gunmen also opened fire at a
security checkpoint, about 50 metres from the gold shop. This prompted seven
officers stationed there to fire back at the attackers, leading to a gun battle
that lasted more than 30 minutes. The gunmen fled into a nearby forest after
reinforcements arrived.
Officers later received a report that a roadside
bombing destroyed a power pole about 200m metres from the checkpoint. They also
discovered an explosive device placed beneath a power pole on the opposite side
of the road.
On the same day, villagers alerted the police when
they found two more IEDs along a local road in tambon Chehe, and authorities
cordoned off the area. Later, police were later alerted to another
roadside bombing in Tak Bai’s tambon Khosit. The explosion caused 10 power
poles to collapse, blocking traffic temporarily.
Meanwhile, in Sungai Kolok district of Narathiwat, Pol Col
Direk Chomyong, the acting chief of the Muno police station, reported two
incidents on October 21 morning – a homemade bomb was detonated and
damaged a power pole in a village, and a bombing device hidden in a fire
extinguisher was found beneath another power pole.
The incidents occurred on the eve of the 19th commemoration of the Tak Bai massacre on Oct 25, 2004, in which 85 protesters
suffocated after being arrested and piled up on top of each other in two
military trucks while being transported to a military camp in Pattani province./.
