Police on Tuesday arrested a suspect wanted in the bombing last March of a fatal high-rise hotel in Hat Yai district, Songkhla, last year that killed three people and wounded more than 200.
FLASHBACK: Coordinated bomb attacks by southern militants last March killed 14 people. People on Tuesday arrested a suspect in the bombing of the hotel in Hat Yai, seen on the right. (File photos)
Col Komkrit Ratanachaya, chief of the 41 ranger unit, said about 100 officers raided a house in Thepa district in the southern province on Tuesday and arrested the 36-year-old suspect, Jema Wani.
He said authorities are looking for eight other suspects in the attack.
Jema Wani, a suspect in connection with the bombing at Lee Gardens Hotel in Hat Yai last year, is arrested in Thepha district of Songkhla. (Photo by Royal Thai Police)
The March 31, 2012, explosion was part of the most deadly coordinated attacks in years in the South. Fourteen people were killed in at least three bombing incidents in Hat Yai and in Yala province.
Mr Jema was wanted in other cases as well, including the shooting of a teacher and burning of schools.
A security source said Mr Jema was a leading member of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil (RKK) militant group in Chana, Thepha, Saba Yoi and Na Thawi districts of Songkhla.
Songkhla security forces went on full alert for possible retaliation by the insurgents after the arrest, the source added.