YALA: Teachers are up in arms over the way the driver of a van taking young students home after school was arrested at a security checkpoint on Thursday, saying the 26 children were left psychologically traumatized by the terrifying experience.
The van was carrying 26 young pupils and one teacher when it was stopped by rangers and border patrol police at a security checkpoint in front of Wat Ban Bohin in tambon Ban Rae of Than To district around 4.10pm on Thursday.
They first ordered the driver, Arlee Yiman, out of the vehicle, suspecting him of involvement in the bombing of power poles at several locations in the southern border district.
Then, noticing all the children, they told him to get back in and behind the wheel. Two officers also got in the van and Mr Arlee was ordered to drive all the students and the teacher home, after which he was taken to Than To police station.
Mr Arlee would later be taken to Ingkhayut Borihan military camp in Pattani’s Nong Chik district for further interrogation.
The entire operation caused panic among the youngsters on board the van, said a teacher at Sutthisartwitthaya school who declined to be named. Some of the children had been reduced to tears.
Panic-stricken children returned home telling their parents they dared not go back to school.
Teachers and the school director gathered at the district hall later on Thursday, calling on military authorities to explain the incident, the teacher said.
On Friday, five of the students who had been in the van were absent from class.
All teachers understood that the rangers and police were doing their duty, however they needed to take into consideration the psychological impact on the young students, said the teacher.
Mr Arlee was hired to provide a service, taking the students to and from school. He picked them up at their homes in the morning and after setting them down at school he went to teach Islam at a school in Than To. In the afternoon, he drove the van taking the students back to their homes.
The teacher wondered why the authorities did not arrest the driver at his home.
Than To district chief Nirut Bua-on said on Friday he was not aware of the round-up operation. He had not so far seen any teachers at his office.
Pol Lt Col Chetthawit Neerahing, commander of the 44th border patrol police task force, said Mr Arlee was detained under the emergency decree on suspicion of involvement a string of bomb blasts that damaged power poles at several locations in Yala.
The stop-search-and-seize operation was being investigated, he said.