Close to home: Big C blasts unsettle lives and security

Close to home: Big C blasts unsettle lives and security

The latest deep South bombing shocked by targeting a commercial supermarket, the picture of normalcy amid the region's violence

It was going to be a fun afternoon for Nurshafiqa Surorayo, a four-year-old Pattani girl reuniting with her uncle Abdul. After several months of working in Malaysia, he was returning to Pattani to see family. He decided to take his niece and nephew out for lunch followed by a trip to the only shopping mall in town, Big C, for ice cream.

Once at the mall, Nurshafiqa's brother asked to go to the bathroom before ordering. While Nurshafiqa and her uncle waited, she listed off her preferred ice cream flavours.

That's when they heard a loud, explosive noise from inside the shopping centre.

An evacuation order was announced shortly after, but Nurshafiqa's brother hadn't yet left the bathroom. She and her uncle decided to head for the bathroom to find him.

Then, minutes later, a second explosion went off. Nurshafiqa fell to the floor from the impact. Abdul was also thrown by the blast. Both of them blacked out on the spot.

They didn't track down Nurshafiqa's brother but later found out that he was safe, suffering not even a tiny scratch.

Two weeks have passed since the twin Big C bombings. While many of the suspects remain at large, investigators say they have identified all of them.

The May 9 incident was originally summed up as one of a series of separatist attacks that have plagued the deep South over the years.

However, officials speculate that the latest bombings were a more pointed attack on the big business's operation.

THE SURVIVOR

Nurshafiqa went to Pattani Hospital with only a minor head injury. She gained conscious shortly after she was sent to the hospital.

While getting her wound stitched, she told her mother that she was suffering from severe stomach pain.

Robiha Cikmie, Nurshafiqa's 31-year-old mother, told Spectrum that she didn't go to Big C that day since she wanted to let her brother enjoy quality time with her children alone like they used to.

"I was at home on May 9 when the incident took place," Robiha explained. "I thought it would be just another visit to Big C -- like our family does on a weekly basis.

"I was at home that afternoon doing housework. Then I got a phone call from my brother. He said he had been injured from a bomb blast and was already at the hospital. Nurshafiqa was injured too but she was safe.

"My heart dropped and I didn't know what to do. Even though I live in Pattani town, none of my family members had got into this kind of situation before."

Robiha rushed to the hospital, which is located nearby her house. She was overcome with relief when she realised no one in her family had been critically hurt.

Still, she was quite concerned about Nurshafiqa, who was suffering from stomach pain.

"I was holding her hand and asking her to be strong," Robiha said. "Suddenly I saw blood appear on her pants. So I removed them and was shocked to see that the blood was actually coming out of her vagina.

"I told the nurse immediately. So they wheeled her into the emergency room straightaway."

The doctors performed a CT scan on Nurshafiqa, and discovered that her liver and kidney had been ripped from the impact. She was bleeding from her internal organs, meaning she would need surgery right away.

She was whisked into the operation room for several hours before emerging again.

She is now recovering at Pattani Hospital.

"Nurshafiqa told me that she feels less pain but it still hurts sometimes when she moves around," Robiha explained. "My brother is already out of the hospital and recovering at home. I don't know when my daughter will be discharged, but she is getting stronger both mentally and physically every day.

"But I'm still quite scared to go out. I feel unsafe in this area, even though I used to feel safe before. I'm probably more paranoid than my daughter at this point."

When visited by Spectrum, Nurshafiqa couldn't respond in Thai as she only speaks Malay.

Still, she looked positive and cheerful, being surrounded by her loved ones.

She flashed us a peace sign to show that despite the shock, her spirit was still intact.

THE SCAPEGOAT

After the May 9 bombings, injuring over 60 people, the police investigators begun to put together a list of suspects.

The police checked CCTV video footage and found that the bomb was stored inside a truck parked in front of the mall's main entrance.

Once they identified the licence plate, they ran a check to see who the truck belonged to, tracing the licence number back to a man named Nuson Kajornkam.

They reviewed the list of ID cards registered at the shopping complex's security checkpoint that every driver has to pass through and found Nuson's name on the list.

Based on this lead, Nuson emerged as an immediate suspect.

The police contacted Nuson's wife, Sawittri "Ying" Kajornkam, to verify if the evidence they'd obtained really belonged to her husband.

Sawittri, who lives in Yala, immediately denied that her husband had been involved in the bombings. The police visited her house for questioning, while she continued to try to contact Nuson by phone. She couldn't manage to get a hold of him.

After two days and countless attempts to contact Nuson, Sawittri finally figured out what had happened to her husband on the day of the attack. The news wasn't good.

One of the suspects arrested confessed to having killed Nuson in order to steal his truck to use for the attack.

The suspect, whose name has yet to be released, told police that he had lured Nuson to an abandoned house in Pattani. From there, he got into the truck and instructed Nuson to drive to a mosque five kilometres outside Pattani town.

When they arrived, he beat Nuson to death and disposed of his body at a rubber plantation in Nong Chik district.

Later, the suspect said that he placed the bomb on the floor behind the driver's seat.

He drove Nuson's truck to Big C, using a back road to avoid military checkpoints on the main highway headed to Pattani town.

When he arrived at Big C, he presented Nuson's ID card to the security guard, who proceeded to let him into the parking lot.

CCTV cameras show the attacker parked Nuson's truck at the main entrance.

The driver left the truck and walked away 10 minutes before the bomb went off.

COMMUNITY MAN

Spectrum visited Sawittri at her Yala home where Nuson lived and ran his business. Her village is hidden down a small street, away from busy Yala town. One side of the street has a row of houses; the other is land filled with wild grass and vegetation.

Sawittri's car was parked in front of her house and the front door was open, but there was no ostensible sign of activity or movement from inside the house.

"Please don't bother her," May, Sawittri's neighbour, advised Spectrum. "Since Nuson was killed, Ying has been unable to sleep at night. She is still very disturbed. She spends all of her time at home praying in her Buddha room."

A grocery store located at the end of the village's main street is operated by a woman named Nong. She told Spectrum that Nuson was known by villagers as "Sorn". He came to her store every day to have a beer and chat with her uncle.

"He [Nuson] was a very good man," said Nong. "I have to say, everyone in this community really loved him. He was a Buddhist Thai and he always helped everyone here -- no matter what religion they believed in."

Nong explained that Nuson came from Lampang but moved to Yala to open an awning business with his siblings. His siblings operate the business in Hat Yai, but he moved to open a deep South branch, where he thought he would face less competition.

"When the police came to the village, Ying didn't believe Sorn would do something like plant an attack," said Nong. "In fact, none of us ever believed he would get involved in something like terrorism since he was one of the nicest guys we'd ever known.

"One night before the attack, he told my uncle that he didn't want to do his job any more. He wanted to leave Yala town to live on a plot of land that he owned outside the city area. He wanted to have a small house and live on a coconut plantation.

"He wanted an easier life. Those were his final words before he walked back to his house. He normally sat here and talked to my uncle until 8pm, but that night he stayed until 10pm before going home."

Nuson wasn't in the habit of accepting jobs in areas he wasn't familiar with, nor with clients he didn't know beforehand.

Before he left home on May 9 to head to Pattani, he asked his wife who had just finished her shift at Yala Hospital if she wanted to go to Big C. She told him she needed to rest and asked him to come pick her up once he had finished his work.

Nuson often travelled with his 15-year-old son when he had installation jobs since he was now old enough to help him. But on May 9, his son was feeling slightly sick.

So Nuson went to Pattani by himself.

BACK TO BUSINESS

The Big C in Pattani has been back up and running since last Friday. Half of the mall has been closed down for renovation, but the rest of the complex is still operating as usual.

Security is visibly tighter nowadays -- every vehicle that enters must be checked comprehensively. This has caused some delays and long traffic jams when entering the mall, but locals report that they at least feel safer in the public space.

Lt Gen Piyavat Nakvanich, the 4th Army Area Commander, told Spectrum during an interview at Sirindhorn Camp in Pattani that the attack involved at least eight or nine people.

Two suspects have been arrested so far, but most suspects remain at large.

"We know every single person who was involved with the attack," Lt Gen Piyavat explained. "This is the same group of people who have launched attacks [in the deep South] in the past.

"We have a record of who they are and where they are hiding. Our intelligence has learned that this group of people are hiding in different mountains in the jungle."

In light of last week's bombing at Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, Lt Gen Piyavat has ordered his undercover military team to carefully watch all hospitals in the area.

Although the Bangkok incident didn't bear any ostensible link to any deep South attacks, the Big C bombings showed people that few places are truly safe any more.

"Anywhere can be considered a sensitive area," Lt Gen Piyavat said. "The terrorists will target anywhere that symbolises something and makes an impact on people's lives.

"Markets, schools, shopping malls and restaurants are not safe any more. These people will do anything to demonstrate their power.

"But one thing that will never happen in this area are suicide bombings. These people are far too cowardly to do it. Of all the attackers who have targeted the deep South over the years, none of them have been brave enough to launch any suicide bombing attacks."

While the motivation for the Big C attack is still unclear, Lt Gen Piyavat believes that it has more to do with attacking commercial business than the deep South separation movement.

"I believe the separatist movement is getting old," he said.

"Only people from older generations still believe strongly in it. Young people who claim to represent the BRN, Pulo or any other terrorist groups don't share the exact same ideology as previous generations.

"Now they're all motivated by money. They can't survive on ideology alone -- they need money to get what they want."

Still, Lt Gen Piyavat says that young people should be on guard about encountering representatives of these separatist beliefs.

"However, it remains dangerous that these separatist ideologies can still be taught by religious and spiritual leaders or teachers in Pondok schools. When these people implant problematic beliefs and knowledge into young people's head, they can warp their sense of reality -- for example, giving them the idea that killing people in the name of God during the month of Ramadan is not a sin but honourable.

"The belief that this can get believers direct access to heaven to be with God is just wrong. This will continue to create big problems for us in the future."

blasted to shreds: Rescue workers move to help those injured in the Big C attack, set off by a truck packed with bombs parked outside the entrance. PHOTO: REUTERS

emergency state: An injured woman is carried from the site of the Big C bomb attack. PHOTO: REUTERS

call to prayer: Muslims gather to pray for the victims of the May 9 bombing in the Big C parking lot. One suspect confessed to having used the ID card of Nuson Kajornkam to pass through security. PHOTO: BANGKOK POST ARCHIVE

towards a solution: Lt Gen Piyavat Nakvanich chairs a Pattani meeting with officers and religious leaders from the deep South provinces on May 20 on how to prevent violence in the area. PHOTO: BANGKOK POST ARCHIVE

to be safe: Lt Gen Piyavat Nakvanich, 4th Army Area Commander, has called for more security. PHOTO: CHAIYOT YONGCHAROENCHAI

gone too soon: The funeral of Nuson Kajornkam, a murder victim of the people behind the Big C bomb attack. They beat him to death and stole his truck. PHOTO: BANGKOK POST ARCHIVE

face of innocence: Four-year-old Nurshafiqa Surorayo from Pattani was hurt in the Big C blasts. PHOTO: CHAIYOT YONGCHAROENCHAI

empty shell: The main entrance of Big C was destroyed. Police have identified several suspects in the attack, although most of them remain at large. PHOTO: REUTERS

BOMBING AFTERMATH: Big C staff are evacuated and gather in the parking lot. PHOTO: BANGKOK POST ARCHIvE

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (1)