THE SOUTH
POST REPORTERS
NARATHIWAT : Traces of gunpowder which might have come from the violent clash between authorities and insurgents on Thursday were found on students of a ponoh school in Rangae district, according to forensic experts. The forensic team led by Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan, director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, detected gunpowder on the clothes and bodies of some students at Ban Yue Nue Reh school.
A source said the ponoh school could have provided shelter to suspected militants of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) guerrilla group who also planned their attacks there.
The students with gunpowder traces had been profiled for possible investigation over any links to the clash in which two RKK members were killed and seven others arrested.
On Thursday afternoon, a 50-strong combined force of police and soldiers raided the school after being tipped off that 10 armed men were hiding there.
 |
| Soldiers restrain a suspected insurgent in Narathiwat province yesterday. Four people, including two militant separatists and a teacher, were shot dead in separate attacks in the South, police said. — AFP |
At the school, a gunfight erupted between the authorities and the rebel suspects.
About 1,000 additional soldiers, police and local officials later joined the security force in the raid.
The gunfight lasted more than five hours before two insurgent suspects identified as members of the RKK were shot dead and seven others caught. Four guns were also seized.
One of two slain RKK was involved in the killing of teacher Juling Pongkunmul and the June 21 shooting on the Sungai Kolok-Yala train, in which four people were shot and killed and a policeman injured.
Rangae district chief Prakong Kongkaew said Ban Yue Nue Reh school would be closed if the police investigation showed it was linked to the militant group.
In Pattani, Samree Jehwae, 30, a teacher, was seriously injured in a drive-by shooting on his way home in Yarang district yesterday afternoon.
Security in Yala was heightened in the aftermath of the Thursday clashes in neighbouring Narathiwat as five road checkpoints were set up in Muang district.
In Narathiwat, around 800 representatives from security forces, Muslim leaders, civic groups, and youth yesterday attended a peace seminar in the strife-torn South.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Next
