Students confess to Narathiwat blasts

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

PHUKET: Narathiwat police chief Pol Maj Gen Patthanawuth Angkhanawin confirmed yesterday that the four Princess of Naradhiwas University students in detention had confessed that they were behind the three bombings in Narathiwat Municipality area on February 20. The attacks resulted in 13 injuries and 47 homes damaged.

Gen Patthanawuth explained the arrest warrants to the students’ parents, rector Rossukon Sangmanee and university staff yesterday.

The warrants were issued after police led a raid last Thursday, which saw 22 suspects arrested. Of those detained, 18 were found to be innocent, while the four students, whose names are withheld, remain in custody.

Insisting that the detention of the four students was based on evidence and that no coercion or torture had been used to get the confession, Gen Patthanawuth said authorities were also hunting for seven accomplices.

Meanwhile, a village headman assistant Ahama Da-oh, 55, lost both legs after he accidentally stepped on a pipe bomb planted in his rubber plantation in Narathiwat’s Suangai Padi district yesterday morning.

Police suspect an ill-intentioned group carried out this attack to create daily unrest in the region.

On Sunday night, a bomb planted inside a foot-long metal pipe on a high-voltage pole in Tambon Bana of Pattani’s Muang district was destroyed.

The authorities are looking for three more bombs after receiving tip-offs. The bomb found had double detonators – the type that was found in the initial period of the 11 years of unrest.

— Phuket Gazette Editors