Betong car bomb suspect arrested

Betong car bomb suspect arrested

Smoke billows from the site where a car bomb was detonated in Betong district of Yala on July 25, 2014, killing three people and injuring 40. (Photo by Maluding Deeto)
Smoke billows from the site where a car bomb was detonated in Betong district of Yala on July 25, 2014, killing three people and injuring 40. (Photo by Maluding Deeto)

A man was arrested on Saturday for his alleged role in a deadly bombing in the southern border town of Betong in Yala almost three years ago.

Soldiers and police in the southern province had been tracking Areedin Silae, 35, in the belief that he was one of the participants in the incident that killed three people and injured 52 on July 25, 2014.

They surrounded a house in Bannang Satar district on Saturday after informants gave them a tip that Mr Areedin was inside.

Col Thanut Pisansitthiwat, deputy commander of the Yala task force unit, said authorities had filed terrorism and illegal arms possession charges against the man.

Mr Areedin stole a public van in Muang district and used the vehicle for the operation, authorities said. The van was later found in Thanto district. His brother Budeeman, 30, was whisked away to the 41st ranger unit in Raman district for interrogation under martial law.

The blast in Betong was the most deadly attack in the district since the southern insurgency began a decade earlier. It was part of a "double-tap" attack that has been a hallmark of southern separatist militants.

The perpetrators first set off a small bomb that caused minor damage to a pickup truck on Bhakdi Road, a busy commercial and residential area.

Ten minutes later, as crowds gathered at the scene, a second, 15kg bomb hidden in a gas cylinder and detonated by mobile phone went off, causing deaths, inuries and tens of millions of baht worth of property damage.

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