Slain insurgents were plotting attacks: Isoc

[webfact]

Slain insurgents were plotting attacks: Isoc
Nakarin Chinworakomon,
Pares Lohasan
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- FOLLOWING Wednesday's operation in which four suspected insurgents were killed and 22 others arrested in Pattani's Thung Yang Dang district, the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc)'s 4th Region Front Command yesterday told the press that operative insurgents had gathered there to plot attacks in the area.

Their aim was to discredit the state's Thung Yang Dang proactive model to boost locals' participation in promoting safety, it said.

Security was beefed up in the deep South on instructions from Army chief General Udomdech Sitabutr and Army Region 4 chief Lt-General Prakarn Cholayut to guard against retaliatory attacks, the front command spokesman Col Pramote Phrom-in said.

Following a tip-off that alleged operative insurgents were lying low in Tambon Pithen, the 30-strong combined security team surrounded a targeted area on Wednesday at about 6pm, resulting in a clash with some 30 suspected militants. Four suspects were killed and 22 others, all Muslim men, were arrested. The security team seized three AK-47s, one pistol, and one grenade, which would undergo forensic tests to find links to other attacks.

Pramote said the Front Command offered condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased suspects identified as Suhaimee Senlae, 32; Kolid Mameng, 24; Madari Maeroh, 23; Saddam Wanu, 24. It was initially found that one of them had been out on bail in connection with a crime.

The 22 detainees were sent for interrogation, he said. Pramote also affirmed that the detainees would be treated as per law and community leaders' participation would be included.

Police and district officials went at around midnight yesterday to inspect the clash scene. A source reported that Kolid and Madari were fourth-year students at a university in Pattani's Yarang district, while Suhaimee was the son of a former tambon-level administrator.

Wednesday's operation followed a tip-off by locals, which was also in line with news of some insurgents' movements to plot attacks at military outposts and create violence in the area, Pramote said. He affirmed that the officers had applied legal measures from soft to hard ones but the suspected insurgents opened fire on them in an attempt to escape. The officers fired back leading to the subsequent gunfight and the four deaths.

"It is possible that the group wanted to create violence to discredit the Thung Yang Dang Model, but the cooperation of locals to alert the authorities about their movement helped us intercept it," he added.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Slain-insurgents-were-plotting-attacks-Isoc-30256817.html


-- The Nation 2015-03-27

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Doubt Cast on Deep South Raid Casualties' Links to Insurgency

By Khaosod English

PATTANI — Police say the four men killed by security forces in the southern province of Pattani this week did not have a known record of terrorism.

The four men were shot dead during a raid carried out by police, military, and paramilitary ranger units on a village in Thung Yang Daeng district on 25 March.

Police initially said two of the men were members of RKK, one of the militant groups behind an Islamic insurgency that has claimed more than 6,000 lives in the region.

Yet Pol.Col. Mana Dechavirit, superintendent of Thung Yang Daeng Police Station, told Khaosod yesterday that none of the four men who were killed in the raid had known connections to criminal cases related to national security.

According to Pol.Col. Mana, two of the four men had records of drug charges and "personal crimes."

Twenty-two men were also detained at the scene on suspicion of aiding the secessionist movement. The commander of Pattani provincial police told Isra news that four of 22 suspects in custody are connected to the insurgency.

"Four of them are members of a group that causes unrest, but they have no previous arrest warrants in national security cases," Pol.Maj.Gen. Kritsakorn Pleethanyawong was quoted as saying.

Community leaders and relatives of the four men who were killed say the men were not involved in the insurgency, and have called for an investigation into the raid.

Nasae Doko, chief of To Chud village, said he was in the neighboring Yala province when the raid took place, and immediately rushed back but he was barred from entering the scene for several hours.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1427439917


-- Khaosod English 2015-03-27

[Rykbanlor]

good work

And a few hours later, maybe not.

If the second claims are true it will be another incident in a lengthy list, that will help to widen the division between the authorities and the community.

[swissbie]

good work

And a few hours later, maybe not.

If the second claims are true it will be another incident in a lengthy list, that will help to widen the division between the authorities and the community.

I fully agree with you, Rykbanlor, too often muslim activists are blamed for everything. Army or policebrutality, even drugs and mafia related incidents are easely blamed on the insurgency. They don't have their own media to express themselves what as a result undermines peace negotiations heavely.

[DeepInTheForest]

oby, this is demented stuff. "They" like to kill people? Who was doing the killing here?

There have been countless misbegotten raids that result in civilian casualties around the world (all of whose victims are initially labeled "insurgents"), and yet the people don't get the message. The insurgencies don't go away.

Funny that.

[ron1964]

Good result, only way to deal with this issue of global jihadists. There will always be civilian casualties,as these drop kicks use innocents as shields.

Radicalised university students ! I wonder what the in house security procedures at the uni are, if any.

[halloween]

oby, this is demented stuff. "They" like to kill people? Who was doing the killing here?

There have been countless misbegotten raids that result in civilian casualties around the world (all of whose victims are initially labeled "insurgents"), and yet the people don't get the message. The insurgencies don't go away.

Funny that.

First you have to realise that insurgents ARE civilians. When those civilians have illegal weapons, such as AK-47s and a grenade, and use those weapons against state security forces, labeling them as insurgents would be accurate. 26 insurgents have just got the message, and 4 will never forget it.

OTOH I note that there is no mention of ammunition seized, and it is well known that a "moderate" muslim is a radical that has run out of ammo.