Land encroachment as possible motive of fatal explosion at Phu Tab Berk

[webfact]

Land encroachment as possible motive of fatal explosion at Phu Tab Berk

By The Nation

 

 

LAND ENCROACHMENT AS POSSIBLE MOTIVE

 

PHETCHABUN: -- A FATAL explosion at the entrance of tourist attraction Phu Tab Berk village in Phetchabun province yesterday may be linked to the authorities’ attempt to dismantle resorts that encroached into water-head forestland.

 

The blast that took place at about 10.40am killed Suan Onta, 63, the driver of a tourists’ pickup truck. 

 

Suan was driving away from the famous mountain, having just seen off his clients, when he stopped to relieve himself behind a pavilion near the of Pu Hin Rongkla National Park entrance. 

 

He reportedly slipped and tried to balance by grabbing a pole where the explosive was hidden, triggering an explosion.

 

The fragments from the explosion injured a woman, Kantika Puengrueng, in her left eye and the shoulder of an unidentified man, as well as damaging vehicles parked nearby.

 

Colonel Pongpetch Ketsupa,of Internal Security Operations Command, said in his report that the blast could have targeted officials because the site had been used as a command centre and gathering point in the operation to dismantle illegally built resorts located in the mountainous Phu Tab Berk village.

 

The last demolition had been in July so no officials had been to the area recently but the authorities are gathering evidence to determine the motive for of the attack.

 

In July, the National Council for Peace and Order ordered at least 26 resorts in Phu Tab Berk to be torn down as they encroached into water-head forestland. Also some of the structures were at risk of landslides.

 

The order gives the Royal Forest Department, Social Development and Human Security Ministry as well as local officials, the authority to seize the land and return it to its original environmental state.

 

The 26 resorts ordered for demolition would be the first targets for the land seizure operation. 

 

If resort owners refuse to comply with the order the authorities will do the job for them and then charge them for it.

 It is still unclear whether the demolitions have finished yet. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30326326

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-09-11

[klauskunkel]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

the National Council for Peace and Order ordered at least 26 resorts in Phu Tab Berk to be torn down

The 26 resorts ordered for demolition 

 It is still unclear whether the demolitions have finished yet. 

It is unclear, because authorities have not yet found an official who can count to 26

[impulse]

A few hundred miles further south and they'd blame it on the insurgency.  

 

When all it really amounts to is crooked land deals.

 

Leading me to wonder how much of the alleged "Insurgent Violence" is really just business as usual.

 

[Lucky mike]

Many areas still like the Wild West.  I live a while ago in a small village not far from Trang one night woken by visit next door motor bike pulls up and fires handgun into house.   Same street different house woken buy automatic gunfire.... .a debt with machine gun fire as a reminder...  ..time to go !