Suspected insurgents carried out a bomb attack in Yala yesterday, just hours before Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa and army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha visited a school in the province.
A bomb squad inspects part of a road damaged by a bomb attack in Yala’s Raman district. The explosion occurred hours before Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa and army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha visited a school in the district. MUHAMMAD AYUB PATHAN
A roadside device was detonated when a team of six soldiers on board an armoured personnel vehicle passed a bridge on Talorhalor-Kaphor Road in Raman district about noon.
No one was injured in the blast, which shattered the windshield of the vehicle.
The explosion left a crater about 2m wide and 1m deep in the road.
A bomb disposal squad was sent to the scene and found pieces of a cooking gas cylinder, steel rods and a length of wire leading to a rubber plantation. Another bomb, inside a 7kg cooking gas cylinder, was also found in the area and destroyed by the army.
The six-member army team was travelling to Bang Bueng Namsai school in Raman district, about 7km from the scene of the attack, to beef up security for a delegation led by Gen Yutthasak and Gen Prayuth, who were due to visit the school in the afternoon.
It is not known who the insurgents were targeting with their attack.
The school is part of a pilot project to provide classes in both Thai and Malayu.
Gen Yutthasak and Gen Prayuth earlier met security officers in Pattani's Yarang district to assess the progress of strategies to quell the southern unrest.
The meeting was held at the Internal Security Operations Command's forward operations base at Sirindhorn Camp at 10.20am.
Gen Yutthasak told officers to tighten security in the region, particularly for the upcoming annual Red Cross fair in Yala.
Gen Prayuth said 66 state agencies and 17 ministries were to resubmit their proposals to tackle the southern unrest to the Southern Border Provinces Development Strategy Committee.
Meanwhile, about 7,000 people affected by the unrest in the deep South since 2004 have registered with the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre to be considered for compensation payments by the state.