Arson, grenade attacks rock South
Simultaneous incidents in 6 Pattani districts injure no one but Narathiwat blasts hurt several
Insurgents in Pattani launched simultaneous arson and bomb attacks at six locations in three districts late on Wednesday, causing no casualties but inflicting heavy damage on government and private property.
Two attacks also took place in Narathiwat – a grenade attack on a shop in Rusoh district that wounded nine civilians, including a three-year-old boy, and a roadside bombing targeting a unit of soldiers, two of whom were wounded.
In Pattani’s Muang district, a small shopping centre and a Big C outlet were destroyed by fires, while a Big C outlet in Nong Chik district was also torched. The attacks are being treated as arson. Police said the latter attack could have been an inside job, but did not elaborate.
A highway maintenance office in Sai Buri also came under arson attack. Police found a home-made bomb left at the scene, a paint can containing a live grenade with its safety pin removed. The grenade was later defused and disposed of.
Insurgents also attacked a construction company and attempted to set fire to a trailer-truck, which was damaged.
The four arson attacks in Pattani were started by devices equipped with timers, said provincial Governor Theera Mintharasak, who ordered security heightened in urban areas and at other key business locations.
Quoting a security guard on duty at the Super Department Store mall, police said insurgents hid behind a wall before throwing firebombs, which were tied to rocks and heavy objects, on to the mall’s roof. The weighted bombs broke the roof tiles, allowing the devices to fall into the structure and set it on fire. Police said a similar technique was used in the attack on the Big C outlet in Muang district.
In the attack on the shop in Narathiwat, police said two attackers dressed as religious teachers arrived on the scene by motorcycle. A man riding on the back threw an M26 grenade at the grocery. The blast wounded nine customers and passers-by, including the baby boy and a female minor. None was in serious condition.
In Rangae district of Narathiwat, a team of six soldiers travelling in a pickup truck and on a motorcycle were hit by a home-made roadside bomb, made of 20-kilogram explosives placed in the cylinder of a fire extinguisher. Insurgents detonated the bomb but did not fire on the unit afterwards.
