SOUTHERN VIOLENCE
WICHAYANT BOONCHOTE & WAEDAO HARAI
Train services to the deep South, suspended since June 21 after the brutal murders of four railway employees on a train in Narathiwat, will resume tomorrow, the State Railway of Thailand announced yesterday.
Since the killings, all southbound trains have been making their final stop at Hat Yai station in Songkhla.
Thanongsak Pongprasert, the director of the southern railway office, said trains going beyond Hat Yai were cancelled because railway staff were demoralised and afraid after the killings.
The attack on the Sungai Kolok-Yala train in Narathiwat on June 21 left four dead and injured one of the policemen on duty.
Authorities have now deployed more security personnel on the trains and at stations. The measures have made employees more confident.
Train services to the deep South will return to normal tomorrow.
The suspension of services dealt a blow to local businesses in much of the far South, which rely almost entirely on rail services for cheap freight deliveries.
In Narathiwat, the five major fresh markets were quiet as vendors stopped ordering fresh produce for sale because they could not afford the cost of transporting the goods by truck.
Farm products and fresh vegetables, mostly imported from Nakhon Si Thammarat, were scarce and expensive.
Several vegetable wholesalers in Nakhon Si Thammarat were running up losses and were forced to close their businesses temporarily.
In Narathiwat, a member of a tambon administration organisation and his son were shot dead by two gunmen at a tea shop in Chanae district on Wednesday night.
The victims were identified as Asae Mani, 41, a tambon administration organisation member, and his son Mayukee, 23.
Police said the attackers stopped outside the shop on a motorcycle before shooting the victims.
A local rebel network was likely to have had a hand in the killings, the police said.
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