PM boosts security in south after attacks

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PM boosts security in south after attacks
Phuket Gazette / Reuters


NARATHIWAT: Prime Minister Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha told the army on Monday to increase security in the southern provinces following attacks over the weekend.

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Seven soldiers were injured following multiple gun and bomb attacks in Narathiwat, one of three provinces near the Thailand-Malaysia border, including a gunfight in a hospital.

“The prime minister has ordered the military to increase security in populated areas,” Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd told reporters.

“The government can’t accept actions that are above the law.”

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The three southernmost provinces of have been gripped by a bloody insurgency that has killed more than 6,500 people since 2004. The region was once part of a Malay sultanate until it was annexed by Thailand a century ago.

Local history and a failure by successive governments to quell the violence have fanned distrust of the Thai state in the south.

The order by PM Prayuth, who came to power after a coupe in May 2014, follows what government and non-governmental agencies said was a sharp drop in the number of attacks in the south.

Deep South Watch, which monitors the violence, said there was a 16 percent drop in violent incidents in 2015 compared to 2014.

However, the latest attack began on Sunday, when gunmen opened fire on police at a train station in Cho-airong district in Narathiwat.

Shortly after, a group of around 30 insurgents fired grenades into a nearby military base before fleeing to a hospital, said Col Yutthanam Petchmuang, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC).

The insurgents briefly took a 29-year-old pregnant nurse hostage and exchanged gunfire with security forces.

“Around 30 bad guys took over the hospital’s second floor,” Yutthanam told Reuters.

“It was a very serious incident. There were three attacks altogether yesterday and seven people were injured.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which authorities have blamed broadly on insurgent groups.

— Phuket Gazette Editors

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