SONGKHLA : Police are searching for three leading insurgents who are suspected of involvement in three blasts in downtown Sadao district of Songkhla on Sunday.
Police said the three were responsible for violent acts in Chana, Na Thawi, Saba Yoi and Thepa districts of Songkhla. They were identified as Seri Waemamu, Rusaran Baima and Abdultorle Kasor.
Police said the trio planted the bombs in nearby Sadao district as their petrol-smuggling network wanted Sadao to be included in a list of security areas.
Since October they have been trying to take revenge against authorities who intensified suppression of petrol smuggling in the district.
Police said at least five men were involved in the three blasts in Sadao. Officers have studied CCTV footage of the incidents.
The bombs, which went off at three locations in Sadao, injured 27 people. Of them, six were now being treated at Sadao Hospital, nine others at Padang Besar Hospital and 12 at Songkhlanagarind Hospital.
The first blast went off around noon near the Oliver Hotel in the downtown tourist area of Ban Dannok in tambon Samnak Kham municipality.
Later in the afternoon, a motorcycle bomb went off in the parking lot at the Padang Besar police station and another bomb exploded in the parking lot of Sadao police station.
These insurgents were also involved in a drive-by shooting in Pattani's Nong Chik district on Dec 3, killing five people, police said.
This incident occurred after seven locals left their homes in a pickup truck to hunt fiddler crabs in a nearby forest, and were attacked by four gunmen on two motorcycles.
Five were killed, one managed to escape and one is still missing.
Police said the insurgents had stolen the pickup truck of the slain locals in Nong Chik district and used it as a car bomb at the Oliver Hotel.
Songkhlanagarind Hospital director Chit Petchpichetchian said 12 injured people _ six males and six females _ are still being treated at the hospital.
Most of them were vendors and shop owners near the blast site of the Oliver Hotel.
Of them, 11 were severely injured because their bodies had been badly burnt, Dr Chit said.
On Sunday night, a CCTV camera was torched by insurgents on Khok Pho-Saikhao Road in tambon Sai Khao of Pattani's Khok Pho district, police said.