Security forces have been put on full alert in Hat Yai district of Songkhla province and the pictures of four insurgents distributed to law enforcement agencies as part of precautions against possible violence during the New Year festivities, reports said.
The four insurgents were identified as Wankhoyari Sarayoraseh, 25, Abdulhalem Jehkhu, 25, Paming Jehkhae, 30, and Muhamad Mudolasae, 27, all of Narathiwat province.
The reports said intelligence units had warned security forces they might try to sneak into the towns during the New Year festival to set bombs.
In response to the warning, combined forces of military, police and defence volunteers have set up checkpoints on routes leading to Hat Yai.
On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, as head of the operations centre for solving problems in the three southern border provinces, said he would hold a video conference on Thursday with village and tambon chiefs and governors in the area to lay down an operational guideline.
On Jan 7 he would make a call on the Chularatchamontri, the Thai Muslim leader, before leading the National Security Council (NSC) chief, director of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) and commander of the Special Branch Police to Malaysia for talks with officials there on ways of solving problems in the restive South.
