Five male suspects arrested in Narathiwat

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community

PHUKET: A 100-strong team of paramilitary rangers took five men into custody yesterday during a raid on three villages in Narathiwat’s Rangae district. The arrests were made under martial law.

In a move to hunt down suspects of the Tanyongmas railway bombing on May 14 and the double bombings on Monday, the team, led by Major Rungsak Srisura, raided several homes in three villages in tambons Ba-ngo Sato and Kalisa on Tuesday morning.

The action followed a tip that operatives such as Amran Ming, Abdulloh Maming, Sola Loh and Usman Aesae, facing at least 10 national-security warrants each, were lying low at insurgency sympathisers’ homes in the area, though the rangers did not find them.

Instead they arrested Muhammad-mudori Lateh, 31, and a 16-year-old boy along with 700 litres of illegal petrol in a pickup truck.

They also apprehended three unnamed male suspects separately.

In a search of an abandoned house in a wooded area, the team also discovered a mobile-phone circuit panel and a motorcycle and believed that this was the house where the insurgents were hiding.

— Phuket Gazette Editors