Isoc to install 14,000 CCTV cameras in deep South
AUTHORITIES are planning to install more than 14,000 closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras in the deep South following the decision to reduce the military presence there.
The Internal Security Operation Command (Isoc) is adjusting its security plan in the South following the recent announcement of troop withdrawals from the area. Footage from the cameras would also be accessed by the Royal Thai Army Special Operation Centre, said Isoc spokesman Colonel Peerawat Saengthong yesterday.
The move is to support the withdrawal of several battalions of the Third Army Region and the First Army Region planned for the October redeployment. Each battalion has 184 soldiers.
After the redeployment, seven Army battalions will remain in the deep South along with 12 regiments of rangers.
Peerawat said 14,756 CCTV cameras would be installed in the region, including 6,624 to be installed at schools in line with the Education Ministry’s request.
He said the camera installations and the data linkages from the district, province and Isoc Region 4 Forward Command levels to the Royal Thai Army Special Operations Centre are nearly 100 per cent complete while officers are also being trained to monitor them continuously.
Peearawat also revealed the names of the 17 members of the committee that will select the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC)’s advisory board members. The committee members will also set the criteria and timeframe for the selection of the 45 advisory board members, which will be approved by Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, he added.
The selecting committee members included General Kitti Intharasorn as panel chairman, former deputy minister Banyat Chansena as deputy chair and the commander of the 4th Region Army, Lt-General Ruangsak Suwannakha, as another deputy chair.
In a separate matter, Peerawat said authorities had not found the two Malaysian bombers wanted for the June 28 attack on the Movida nightclub in Malaysia’s Selangor state, which left eight people injured.
Thai authorities were alerted by their Malaysian counterparts to look for two suspects from Johor state after they reportedly fled to Thailand via Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok border crossing.
Meanwhile, a motorcycle bomb reportedly targeting an armoured vehicle belonging to Narathiwat’s Sri Sakhon district chief Kotchakorn Raksasorn detonated as the district chief left a monthly meeting of kamnans and village headmen at a defence volunteer base near Sri Sakhon Police Station yesterday afternoon.
The blast slightly injured eight people including 59-year-old Kotchakorn, district clerk Waesama-ae Jeh-heh, 42, five defence volunteers and one civilian, Anat Niotabtim. The motorcycle was reported missing on June 12, 2014 by its owner Sunit Thaemuk.
Police said the attack was carried out by “ill-intentioned people to assassinate a district chief ahead of the August 7 constitution referendum and to create disruption in the area”, a source said.
