Abdultore Kaso, a former leader of the RKK guerilla group in Songkhla, was shot and killed while on his new job in Thepha district.
He was attacked late yesterday morning by unidentified men when he stepped out of his pickup truck to give ice to customers on Na Chuak-Phru Ching Road, police said. An initial examination found he had been shot several times by gunmen armed with a small rifle and a pistol. Investigators are determining whether the murder was the result of a personal conflict or an insurgency-related incident.
Abdultore, 48, had served as a leader of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil, or RKK, which was active in Saba Yoi district. Its members are trained as guerillas to stir unrest in the Muslim-dominated provinces in the far South.
He had been allegedly involved in many violent incidents, including ambushes and bomb attacks. However, after he was arrested and the charges against him dropped, he decided to join the state programme called pha khon klap ban, or the "take people home" programme, which is aimed at drawing people out of the insurgency.
Three days before Abdultore was killed, key insurgent group leader Bukhori Lamso was spotted in Thepha district, according to an intelligence source.
His appearance may have been related to the attack, they said. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has urged officials to improve their intelligence missions to avoid a repeat of the recent bombings in Bangkok.
"We haven't been very good at gathering information over the past 10 years because we have no [intelligence] sources in certain areas," he said yesterday.