Insurgent attack claims second
Nawarat Leenin, an official killed in a public bus ambush in Narathiwat on Monday, was the second person in her family to fall victim to insurgents in the South.
On December 29, 1986, her father, Vin Leenin – who worked as director of a school in Si Sakhon district – was shot dead by insurgents.
Nawarat, 29, an agricultural official, succumbed to her injuries on the way to the hospital. She sustained fatal injuries when the van she was riding in was attacked by a group of assailants, who emerged from their hiding place alongside a road in Joh I Rong district, and opened fire at the vehicle. Nawarat’s colleague, Patimoh Salae, 34, was also killed and five other passengers injured.
Sanguan Intarak, president of the Narathiwat Teachers Federation, said Nawarat’s death was shocking, especially since her father too had been killed brutally. He said he remembered that Vin and two other teachers were tied to a pole on the campus of Ban Panun School and assassinated. “I was just starting off as a teacher in Joh I Rong district, and that was one of the saddest incidents to take place. Our morale was at its lowest,” he said.
After the Monday attack, public passenger vans in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district suspended their services. As of press time, four of the five passengers injured in the attack had been discharged from hospital.
The vans are no longer running from Narathiwat’s Muang district to Sungai Kolok, Joh I Rong and Sungai Padi districts, leaving the residents practically cut off from the rest of the province.
Meanwhile, combined forces have launched a manhunt for the attackers in Joh I Rong and Rangae districts.
An initial police investigation quoted witnesses as saying some 12 assailants were involved in the attack. They emerged from behind bushes on the roadside and opened fire at the van, which was packed with passengers heading home from work.
The police collected many spent M16 and AK47 cartridges from the scene.
Separately, Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanich said the government would provide bullet-proof vests to teachers who wanted them, though so far nobody has put in requests. When asked if teachers should carry guns, Sermsak said he did not believe mere guns would work because insurgents usually used war weapons.
He also floated the idea of holding a mass wedding for teachers in Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, because it would offer happiness to people in the South. Details still have to be discussed and finalised, he said.
