Security authorities in Thailand’s deep South have to work more actively to deter violence and act more promptly to contain any violent incidents, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Wednesday.
He was responding to a series of violent attacks in the southern border provinces in the past few days, including an ambush in Saba Yoi district of Songkhla that left one Buddhist novice dead and another injured on Tuesday morning.
Mr Phumtham, also defence minister, said he was particularly concerned about attacks that have occurred daily over the past four to five days, in which sometimes up to two or three incidents occurred in one day.
Following these attacks, he said, he held a Zoom conference with security officials, in which he emphasised the need to change the way they handle violence in the restive provinces.
Taking part in the conference were army chief Gen Pana Klaewplodthuk, national police chief Kittharath Punpetch, Fourth Army Region commander Lt Gen Paisal Noosang, the secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, and other officials.
First of all, Mr Phumtham said, they need to act fast to restore public confidence in the security standards maintained in the far South after all these violent incidents by working more actively, and not just waiting until new incidents occur.
More importantly, whenever such violence erupts, authorities need to act more promptly to contain it and immediately report it directly to him, said the minister.
Prime Minister’s Office Minister Chousak Sirinil has called for beefed-up security for Buddhist monks and novices in the southern border provinces who still have to go out daily for their morning alms round.
The novices killed and injured in Songkhla on Tuesday were ambushed while travelling in the back of a pickup truck to do their alms round.
Lt Gen Paisal said the attack on the two novices had followed a series of violent attacks that appeared to have followed a deadly ambush on an ustaz, a Muslim religious teacher, on April 18 in Raman district of Yala.
This particular attack had been used to spread false information that it was the work of security authorities, the same tactic which had been used to provoke violent rebellion against state authorities in past major incidents such as the Krue Se and Tak Bai violence in Pattani and Narathiwat, respectively, he said.
Lt Gen Paisal ruled out a suggested connection between this series of violent incidents and the government’s handling of the southern peace talks, saying the safety of innocent people in the deep South should never be used for negotiating with the government.