SUNGAI KOLOK — A home-made bomb went off at a mobile phone signal-repeating tower in Narathiwat province late Friday night and another one was planted nearby in what was seen a failed insurgency attempt to lure officers into its trap.
Pol Col Prayut Pongsanti, chief of Muno police station in Sungai Kolok, led a team of police and a military bomb-disposal squad to inspect the blast scene at a TrueMove mobile phone signal tower at Kawalormatae village in tambon Monu, Sungai Kolok district, at 9am on Saturday following a blast late Friday night.
When the officers arrived, they found a suspicious-looking object placed near the entrance to the repeater station. Bomb-disposal officers identified it as a home-made explosive and defused it.
Authorities later inspected the station and found pieces of metal scattered around the signal tower. The wall of the station was partly damaged by the explosive, which was stuffed into a 25-kg cooking gas cylinder, said police.
According to a police investigation, an unknown number of men planted one bomb near the signal tower and another at the entrance before detonating the first explosive at about 11.30 pm on Friday. Police were alerted, but they feared it might be a trap so they opted to inspect on Saturday morning instead.