Four traders from Rayong were tied up and shot dead at close range by men who stormed into their hut in Yala’s Krong Penang district early on Tuesday morning.
Pol Lt Anurak Mingsala, duty officer at Krong Penang police station, said the shooting occurred about 1am at a small hut near Ban Krong Penang market on Highway 410 (Yala-Betong) in tambon Krong Penang.
The victims were identified as Thavorn Suwanchote, 35, Thassana Thumporn, 25, Suthat Somroob, 38, and Noi, 37, whose last name was not known. They were all fruit traders from Rayong’s Klaeng district.
They were shot several times in the head and body with 9mm and 11mm calibre handguns and M16 assault rifles, police said.
Police said there were three survivors of the attack, Kittisak Boontho, 17, Somrak Suwanchote, 26, and Wasant Boonyinglua, 29, who also come from Klaeng district in Rayong.
They told police that the slain men had brought them to Yala with them to buy fruit from local farmers for sale in the eastern province of Rayong.
The fruit traders had rented small hut as a temporary shelter since mid-December.
About 1am, while Thavorn and three colleagues were preparing to go to sleep, about seven armed men arrived on a pickup truck, stormed the hut and tied them up, and then shot each of them at close range in their heads and bodies.
The attackers stole the victims' bags before fleeing. There was not much money in the stolen bags, the witnesses said.
The survivors said they were saved because they were sleeping in a six-wheel truck parked near the hut and stayed put until solders arrived at the scene.
Police blamed insurgrents tied to the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) movement.
According to Deep South Watch, which monitors the southern violence, more than 5,000 people have been killed and over 9,000 injured in more than 11,000 incidents, or about 3.5 a day, in the three southernmost provinces and the four districts of Songkhla since the violence erupted afresh in January 2004.