Policeman killed and four injured in insurgent ambush in Yala

FILE PHOTO – The Nation

A policeman has been killed and four villagers injured in an apparent ambush by insurgents in Yala’s Raman district yesterday (Wednesday).

Tha Thong police in Raman were alerted just after 5pm about the attack on a pickup truck at the boundary between Raman and Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district.

When police and an Army unit arrived at the scene they found 41 year old Pol Senior Sgt Maj Somjit Chudam, a Muang Yala policeman, dead in the driver’s seat. Four injured villagers were identified as Thaworn Phetchoengchum, Nipon Chanmanee, Suwit Panthong, and Sompit Suklangthuan. They were rushed to the Rama Hospital.

Two other villagers, Charoon Renunuan and Thuan Ratanakhiri, who were not injured, told police that they were returning home from hunting boars in a forest in Ban Jarang Tadong village when a group of men opened fire on them from the roadside forest.

They say the policeman and the villagers returned fire but the attackers fled after a brief gunfight.

Just two days ago the Thai Government named a district in Pattani, just north of Yala, a Special Control Zone. Read the story HERE.

ORIGINAL STORY: The Nation