Fatal Pattani man shooting prompts urgent probe in Southern Thailand rubber plantation

Authorities are investigating the shooting of a 34-year-old man from Pattani province who was found dead in a rubber plantation in the sub-district of Saba Yoi, Songkhla province. The victim reportedly had previous gunshot injuries but had not filed a police report due to fear.

The police and emergency services arrived to find the victim near a large rubberwood log with gunshot wounds to his torso and head. The man’s younger sibling had also previously been shot and injured but did not report the incident to the authorities.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Jop Kaewsrichan, an investigator at Saba Yoi Police Station in Songkhla province, received a report of the body discovered in the rubber plantation in Moo 8, Kuha Subdistrict, Saba Yoi District, Songkhla province. He then coordinated with Saba Yoi Hospital physicians and Lieutenant Colonel Dusit Promsin, the investigation chief from the Songkhla Provincial Police, to investigate the crime scene along with the rescue team.

Upon questioning the victim’s family, it was revealed that the man’s younger brother had also been shot and injured in the past but did not report it to the police. Authorities are now urgently looking into the case, suspecting a personal dispute may cause the shooting but not ruling out the possibility of increased violence in the southern border regions.

Gun crime and shootings in Pattani and Songkla are not new phenomena. Only last month eight police officers from Sai Buri Police Station in Pattani province, southern Thailand, were injured in a bomb attack while on patrol. Two police vehicles were damaged.

Before the incident, 11 officers went on patrol in two pick-up trucks in the Sai Buri district. Assailants detonated a hidden bomb as the officers drove along the Ban Pa Thung – Bang Kao Road in Bang Khao subdistrict at 10.45pm on April 19. The assailants fled the scene.

One officer was injured by shrapnel and seven others suffered tinnitus and tight chests due to the explosion. All were taken to Crown Prince Sai Buri Hospital in Pattani for treatment. Read more about the story here.