INSURGENCY
POST REPORTERS
Curators eagerly show students replicas of a phra khan, a double-edged short sword and ornately decorated scabbard, from their mobile museum, a converted truck. |
All train services to the three trouble-plagued southernmost provinces have been cancelled after insurgents boarded a train and killed four people on Saturday.
The State Railway of Thailand (SRT) has suspended services to Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces from today. Trains to these destinations from Bangkok will now make Songkhla's Hat Yai district their final stop.
SRT executives said they will meet security officials to find ways to ensure such a tragedy does not happen again, before resuming services to the three provinces.
Sutep Suwanachatri, chairman of the SRT labour union in Hat Yai, yesterday called on the government to provide better protection on trains.
''Similar attacks have occurred many times in the past. We want the government to come up with better security,'' he said.
Insurgents wearing military fatigues attacked a Sungai Kolok-Yala train on Saturday.
They shot at SRT employees, including railway police, when the train reached Narathiwat's Rangae district. Four people were killed.
One injured railway policeman, Pol Snr Sgt-Maj Chananan Pongdong, remained hospitalised in Narathiwat yesterday.
He suffered serious bullet wounds, but was out of danger, doctors said.
The militants, believed to be members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) group, fled after the attack. One of the attackers was believed to have been wounded. Police yesterday found traces of blood near the railway tracks.
Police believe the assailants fled to an area between Ban Marue Botok and Bra Eng villages in Rangae district.
The militants also shot at the locomotive. Train driver Tira Benso managed to take about 100 passengers to safety by accelerating the train through an insurgent barricade across the lines.
Mr Tira said he accelerated and took the train out of the area.
''They placed logs on the tracks to derail the train, but I decided to crash through them,'' he said.
A police bomb disposal unit yesterday removed a bomb from a railway line in Ban Salokadae village in Rangae district.
Investigators believe the bomb was aimed at halting train services to the three southernmost provinces.
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