Fishing piers in Pattani bombed by southern militants

[webfact]

Fishing piers in Pattani bombed by southern militants



PATTANI: -- Violence continued in the deep south despite the Muslim Ramadan fast with two fishing piers in Pattani bombed by southern militants, causing damages to four fishing boats.

The two bombing incidents happened simultaneously at Pramongsiripong pier at Tambon Bana in Muang district, and at the pier behind the Sabarang school of Tambon Sabarang, about one kilometre from the first pier at about 10 pm on Saturday.

Pattani police and soldiers immediately rushed to the two scenes after the bombings were alerted.

At the first pier, two boats, Ruangdet 3 and T. Siripon, docked at the pier were damaged.

Luckily the two boats did not sink after and nobody was injured in the blast.

A second bomb went off at Sabarang pier also damaged two boats, Chokpornchai 3 and Nongnuch.

Nobody was injured.

Crew members of the fishing boats said prior to the blasts, they saw two men in a long tailed boat sailed pass their boats.

They did not suspect as they thought it was just a local fishing boat.

But a few minutes afterwards, explosions were heard.

Police said the southern militants used two long-tail boats in the sabotage.

They tied a 10-kilo home made to one boat and sailed off.

A few minutes later the bomb went off, causing damage to one boat and another docked nearby.

Security personnel were looking through surveillance cameras to find the militants who now turn their targets on fishing boats at piers.

In two separate incidents, a motorcycle spareparts shop and a furniture shop, were destroyed in two arson attacks by southern militants fire in Pattani town early Sunday.

The first target was a four-storey shop building selling motorcycle spareparts.

The fire started from the ground fire and quickly spread.

Fire trucks were rushed to the scene and firemen managed to rescue a 65-year-old shop owner who was trapped and lied unconsciously at the balcony of the second-floor room.

After he was rescued and regained his consciousness, he told police he smelled some gasoline and then a fire quickly broke out on the first floor.

The shop was badly burnt in almost three hours of raging.

A second arson attack was at a furniture shop which happened almost at the same time.

The fire burnt out the shop after almost two hours of burning.

At both fire scenes, forensic police found evidences of arson attacks.

In an insurgency-related incident, a woman was shot dead while riding a motorcycle from her home to the Tak Bai town in Narathiwat yesterday.

Benjawan Khunsakul, 35, died on the spot in Jujo village.

Local police said unknown assailants took away the victim’s motorcycle and suspected they would turn the stolen motorcycle into a motorcycle bomb.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/fishing-piers-pattani-bombed-southern-militants/


-- Thai PBS 2016-06-20

[impulse]

Just as likely to be an ordinary business dispute.

[hansnl]

Militants?

Throwing or placing bombs, arson, random shooting etc, to incite terror is called terrorism.

[Kabula]

Planet Earth will be a better planet when we run out of bombs, explosive devices and bullets.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

I drove up from east-coast Malaysia two weeks ago and crossed into Thailand at the Sungai Kolok border crossing. Had a chat with the head of the immigrations there and asked how safe is the road to Had Yai from the border. He told me don't worry, the muslim terrorists are mostly trying to make problems with the Thai army, but he informed just to stay on the main road, and not to go inside on smaller roads or too drive at night. It was a surreal experience driving from the border, like driving in a war zone. Never seen temples with razor wire around them and bunkers inside on the temple grounds. Army was patrolling on motorcycles with M-16 all over the place, most major crossings had hunting towers wrapped in black nets to make it more difficult to aim at the soldiers inside them, special forces with black face masks and Kevlar wests every 3-4 kilometres, armored cars and heavy weapons all over the place. I would not recommend this road for traveling by road from Malaysia, the Sadao crossing is much safer, even if there was some bombs there before. You could see a different kind of muslims in the area from the Sungai Kolok crossing all the way to pass Pattani, more Burkas and hardline stuff. If Thailand think they can keep this area Thai, a new stronger approach is needed, otherwise they can just give it up.

[Srikcir]

Beginning of June 2016 Prayut gave an assurance that safety measures will be in place to ensure the security of the general public during the period of Ramadan.

FAIL

[ggt]

Militant Muslims can bomb schools, hospitals, even hotels...but the audacity to bomb a fishing pier...that is the final straw...

[nausea]

Will somebody please explain to me what the southern militancy is about. Their tactics make absolutely no sense to me. Are they just local gangsters, or some kind of genuine independence movement.