TAO office raided, senior official slain in Narathiwat

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TAO office raided, senior official slain in Narathiwat
Thai PBS

NARATHIWAT -- The secretary of a Tambon Administration Organisation in Tambon Romsai of Sukhirin district of Narathiwat province was brutally shot to death after at least ten armed men broke into the TAO office on Tuesday.

The incident occurred at about 11am at the Romsai TAO office, Pol Lt Wongduan Khamsri, according to the duty officer at Sukhirin police station.

TAO officials told police, who later arrived at the scene, that about ten men in military-like uniforms, fully armed, walked into the TAO office. They first believed the intruders were military personnel paying a visit.

One of the men then asked them for Boonlert Jindathananant, 57, the TAO secretary, while the others told all of the officials in the office to stay together before dividing them into groups Buddhists and Muslims.

Mr Boonlert, the TAO secretary, was taken out from his office with hands tied to the back. The armed men then tied the hands of all TAO officials to the backs with strings and forced them to lie face-down.

Seven to eight of the men walked to the back of the TAO office, and opened fire at a car they believed belong to Mr Boonlert. Hearing the noises of the gunfire, the TAO officials ran in every direction in panic, leaving only Mr Boonlert in the office.

The armed men then took Mr Boonlert to a tent temporarily set up for motorcycles parking. One of them fired one shot with a 9mm pistol in the back of the head of Mr Boonlert, killing him instantly.

The armed men then fled into the forest behind the TAO office.

Pol Lt Wongduan said after being informed of the incident, a team of police led by Pol Col Somchai Panom-upakarn, the Sukhirin police chief, rushed to the scene to investigate.

While the police were at Ban Ai Buena in tambon Romsai, on the way to the TAO office, a number of assailants hiding in roadside bushes detonated a home-made bomb. Fortunately, the explosion did not hurt any of the police.

Pol Col Somchai then called on the radio for explosive ordnance disposal and forensic police to the spot. He and an advance team of police went ahead to the TAO office.

While two teams of EOD and forensic police were arriving at the spot where the bomb exploded, they were fired at by a number of men from the roadsides. Nobody was hurt in the ambush.

The two teams then proceeded to the TAO office and met with Pol Col Somchai’s team there.

They were investigating to establish whether the incident was related to insurgency or whether the incident was motivated by an internal conflict in the TAO.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/tao-office-raided-senior-official-slain-in-narathiwat

-- Thai PBS 2015-12-29