Security authorities will do their best to ensure the local community has a full understanding of last week’s shooting in Pattani’s Mayo district that left three suspected insurgents dead.
Col Pramote Promin, spokesman of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4, said officials are keen to talk to the families of the victims, religious leaders and residents about last Fridays's clash, to allay any concerns they might have.
Col Pramote said authorities are concerned about the shootout and are working to establish what happened.
Three suspected insurgents were killed during an exchange of gunfire with authorities at a house in the compound of a religious school in Ban Nam Sai of Luboh Yirai sub-district.
Three were arrested and two fled following the shootout. The house was believed to be a hide-out belonging to a group led by Maluding Tahe.
The Isoc spokesman said authorities are also prepared to provide assistance to people affected by the incident and Army Region 4 will send army engineers to repair the house damaged by the shooting.
He said the suspects, who are being detained by the 43rd Rangers Regiment for questioning, are cooperating.
In another development, a Supreme Administrative Court hearing into torture charges filed by former Yala students against the army started yesterday.
Yala Rajabhat University students Isama-ae Tae and Amizi Manak, 22 at the time, were arrested under martial law in January 2008 by the Yala 11th Task Force and detained for nine days. The men claimed they were tortured while in army custody and needed treatment for injuries sustained.
They were released without charge but the two filed civil suits later that year. The Civil Court in Bangkok agreed with the Royal Thai Army and the Defence Ministry, named as the first and second defendants, that the case be transferred to the Administrative Court in Songkhla.
In November 2011, the Songkla Administrative Court ordered the defendants to pay Mr Isama-ae 255,000 baht and Mr Amizi 250,000 baht. Mr Amizi, it said, had no medical bills to prove he sought treatment for injuries sustained when he was allegedly tortured.
The men have now appealed against that ruling, seeking compensation of 1.2 million baht each, plus 7.5% interest, and an apology in the newspapers.
Their claims include 200,000 baht for physical assault and disrupting their lives, 500,000 baht for blackening their names, and 500,000 baht for their loss of rights incurred when the army revoked the 2007 charter following the military coup. They also want the army to circulate a letter to state agencies in the southernmost provinces and their university declaring that they are innocent.