Army clarifies curfew rumours for districts in Southern Thailand

ThaigerPublished: 12:19, 10 November 2019| Updated: 12:19, 10 November 2019

164 1 minute read

A car is inspected by armed civil defence volunteers and police at a checkpoint in the southern province of Narathiwat on November 6, 2019, after 15 people were killed and another five injured in attacks by suspected Muslim militants in Yala province last night. - At least fifteen people were gunned down in an ambush by suspected Muslim militants in Thailand's violence-wracked south, an army spokesman said on November 6, one of the bloodiest days in the 15-year insurgency. (Photo by Madaree TOHLALA / AFP)

PHOTO: New Straits Times

The army says now that won’t upgrade the curfew in the troubled deep South following an attack that killed 15 people on Tuesday night.

A spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command says, contrary to some news reports, no curfew would be imposed at this stage.

He says the Army is urging people not to panic.

“There is no immediate need to impose a curfew, and people should not be frustrated.”

Attacks blamed on islamic militants in the southernmost province of Yala left 15 community guards dead. The three southern Thai provinces that border Malaysia remain a hotbed of Islamic militant activity, leaving up to 7,000 soldiers, volunteers, officials and civilians dead. The insurgency has been been going for nearly two decades.

A Friday announcement in the Royal Gazette allowed the director of ISOC to consider curfew in the several southern districts, effective from December 1 for up to a year, but ISOC explained that this only empowers LSOC to impose curfew.

“It is not an announcement of curfew per se,” said the spokesman.

SOURCE: The Nation