Paetongtarn to visit Thailand's Deep South amid volatile situation

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra is scheduled to visit three southern border provinces on Thursday, shortly after two bomb attacks in Pattani and Narathiwat that claimed two lives and injured several others.

Government spokesman Jirayu Houngsub stated on Wednesday that Paetongtarn would visit Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat primarily to monitor progress on the development of basic infrastructure, including roads, and to meet local religious leaders and discuss issues with fishing boat operators.

Her first stop will be at Princess of Naradhiwas University in Narathiwat’s Mueang district, where she will meet students and their parents attending a debt restructuring fair at the university.

The Prime Minister is also set to hold a meeting with relevant government agencies at the university’s meeting hall, where she will receive briefings on the progress of key projects, including the construction of a bridge over the Kolok River in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district and a double-track railway linking Hat Yai in Songkhla to Sungai Kolok.

From Narathiwat, the Prime Minister will travel to Thamavitya Mulniti School in Yala to meet religious leaders and students. Following this meeting, she will visit the marine police pier in Tambon Ru Samilae in Pattani’s Mueang district to engage with fishing boat operators.

While in Pattani, she will also be briefed on the progress of a project to dredge waterways along the Pattani coast and the construction of a dock in the province.

Jirayu said that the Prime Minister would preside over a ceremony at Pattani Provincial Hall to grant soft loans to SMEs in the three southern border provinces. She is expected to return to Bangkok the same evening.

Security will be heightened during the Prime Minister’s visit to the restive Deep South, following two recent bomb attacks on Monday and Tuesday.

On Tuesday, two border patrol policemen, who also taught at a school in Narathiwat’s Si Sakhon district, were killed when insurgents detonated a homemade bomb to ambush their pickup truck on their way to school.

On Monday morning, a Malaysian tourist and nine Thai policemen and defence volunteers were injured when insurgents detonated a homemade bomb hidden in a motorcycle parked near a police station in Pattani’s Mueang district.

According to statistics from the Royal Thai Police’s Forward Command, insurgents have carried out 80 “motorcycle bomb” attacks between 2012 and 2024. The breakdown of attacks is as follows:

• 2012-2013: 18 bombs
• 2014: 21 bombs
• 2015: 8 bombs
• 2016: 13 bombs
• 2017: 7 bombs
• 2018: 5 bombs
• 2019: 2 bombs
• 2020: 2 bombs
• 2021: 1 bomb
• 2022: 1 bomb
• 2023: None
• 2024: 2 bombs