South

Two shot dead at a Pattani market place – Southern insurgency

Published

3 months ago

November 25, 2018

Two shot dead at a Pattani market place – Southern insurgency | The Thaiger

The southern insurgency, never out of the news for more than a week, has claimed two more lives in the southern provinces.

Two defence volunteers have been fatally shot at a shopping market place in the Kapor district of Pattani province yesterday. Police believe that southern militants were behind the brazen close-range attack.

The two victims, identified as Supote Phonpala and Asri Julae, were volunteers attached to the Tambon Talordue Raman protection unit in Kapor district.

Police say that two assailants, believed to be militants, were mingling with the other shoppers and following the two victimes. When they got close to Asri and Supote, they took out their 9mm handguns and fired at point-blank range at the heads of the two victims.

The two volunteers collapsed onto the floor of the market, the two assailants grabbed their service pistols and spend away. Other shoppers rushed the two victims to the district hospital where they were pronounced dead upon arrival.

South

Southern insurgency: Ranger shot dead in Songkhla house

Published

5 days ago

February 18, 2019

The Thaiger & The Nation

Southern insurgency: Ranger shot dead in Songkhla house | The Thaiger

FILE PHOTO: The latest shooting in a spate of recent violence in the southern provinces – The Nation

A ranger based in Yala has been shot dead at his home in Songkhla’s Muang district.

Pol Capt Adirek Burintrapibal, the deputy inspector of Muang Songkhla police station, was alerted at 8.30pm last night of the shooting at a house in Moo 10 village in Tambon Pawong.

The Nation reports that 43 year old Charoen Moraphan died when a bullet hit him in the left side of his chest.

His wife, Khiew, says she was at the back of the house while Charoen was watching TV in the living room facing towards the front door. She says her husband was on leave from his Yala ranger base for two weeks.

Police claim a gunman inserted a gun barrel through the front door and opened fire at Charoen, hitting him once in the chest.

Police are yet to identify the motive for the killing, the latest in a spate of violence in the southern provinces.

South

50+ motorbike taxi drivers blockade southern border

Published

5 days ago

February 18, 2019

The Thaiger

50 Thai motorcycle taxi drivers have set up a blockade at the Thai-Malaysian border checkpoint to protest what they allege are unworkable, stricter immigration checks now imposed by Malaysian immigration officials.

The taxi drivers say they have been bringing Thai tourists across the border in Songkhla’s Sadao district to the duty-free shops in Malaysia’s Padang Besar for years.

Yesterday morning’s temporary blockade delayed several buses and cars carrying dozens of Malaysian tourists heading to Hat Yai.

Thai immigration police, army troops and local administration officials intervened and persuaded the taxi drivers to move their 50+ bikes blocking the road.

Drivers initially refused, demanding that Thai immigration officials negotiate with their Malaysian counterparts to ease the border crossing restrictions.

The border crossing process has been tightened in recent months by requiring production of a valid passport instead of border passes as was the case in the past. But many Thai motorcycle taxi drivers do not have passports and say the new restrictions are overly restrictive and an alternative solution should be accommodated.

South

Four rangers escape unharmed after insurgents’ attack in Narathiwat

Published

1 week ago

February 14, 2019

The Thaiger & The Nation

Four rangers escape unharmed after insurgents’ attack in Narathiwat | The Thaiger

MAP: Narathiwat’s Ra Ngae district

Four rangers have escaped unhurt after southern insurgents detonated a roadside bomb in an attack in Narathiwat’s Ra Ngae district this morning.

Police say the attack happened at 8.10am on a main road in Ban Pa Phai village in Tambon Tanyong.

The bomb damaged a makeshift shelter for vendors to buy rubber latex from local villagers.

Police say the patrol of four rangers was approaching the area when the homemade bomb was detonated. But the timing was not right and the blast didn’t harm the rangers.

SOURCE: The Nation