Narathiwat: Two policemen were killed and three others wounded by an explosion while on the way to provide security for a polling unit in Rueso district yesterday morning.
The incident occurred shortly before 8am as five policemen were travelling in a pickup truck to the polling unit in Ban Sue Roh for the Senate election in tambon Riang of Rueso district.
The explosion wounded Pol Cpl Trairong Denduang, Pol L/Cpl Nanpong Lertla, Pol Cpl Jakkawad Kongyu, Pol L/Cpl Prapan Ritponpan and Pol L/Cpl Kittisak Buama.
Pol Cpl Trairong and Pol L/Cpl Nanpong were critically injured and died later in hospital.
The wounded officers were airlifted from the local hospital to Yala Regional Hospital.
The officers involved in the incident were part of a 16-strong mobile security unit comprising two pickup trucks, a car and one motorcycle. They had been sent to patrol the Senate polling station in the violence-prone area.
According to investigators, the bomb was packed in a 50 kilogramme cooking gas cylinder and planted on the road to the polling unit. It was activated by attackers as the police vehicles drove by.
The blast toppled one of the pickup trucks carrying five officers, overturning the vehicle and scattering debris from the explosion for 30 metres. It left a crater about one metre deep and two metres wide in the road.
Police said a long detonation chord was attached to the bomb and detonated by an unknown group of attackers believed to be hiding in a roadside bush.
Pol Lt Col Ekkapol Leknok, chief of the Special Unit 30 in Narathiwat who supervises the security team, said intelligence reports indicated that Humsan Useng, a key member of a local separatist group, had stolen two empty gas cylinders in the area on Saturday.
He said police investigators believe Mr Humsan is connected to the attack and are attempting to track him down for questioning.
Pratheep Wuthirattanakowit, chairman of the election committee in Narathiwat, said the attack did not interrupt voting at Ban Sue Roh, which ran as scheduled.
A new security team with extra personnel was deployed at Ban Sue Roh polling station after the attack, but the number of security officers at other polling units in nearby villages remained the same.
The chairman said the average number of security personnel guarding polling stations in Narathiwat was higher than in other border provinces on Sunday.
But Mr Pratheep said that voting in the Senate election in Narathiwat got off to a slow start, adding that voter turnout in the province would probably be less than 50%.
Narathiwat resident Buathong Boonraksak said she went to vote despite knowing little about the role of senators and what they actually do. She said she had merely wanted to exercise her democratic rights.