PATTANI : The charred remains of three people have been found in a burned 200-litre fuel tank in a rubber plantation in Pattani's Khok Pho district.
Villagers spotted the tank and its contents at 6pm on Saturday at Ban Phong Phong village of tambon Pak Lor. They informed the Napradu police station in Khok Pho district.
Napradu police found at the scene a man's wallet that included an identification card and a health security card with the name Sulaiman Sala, 21.
Police said the bodies had been burnt beyond recognition and it was difficult to ascertain at the scene who they were. The bodies were taken to nearby Khok Pho hospital for an autopsy.
A team of Napradu police yesterday met Pattani police chief Pol Maj Gen Phot Suaysuwan to identify the victims.
Sulaiman's address was shown as Ban Buenae Buke village of tambon Talohalor in Yala's Raman district.
The investigators contacted the man's relatives who yesterday travelled to inspect the body and confirmed he was Sulaiman.
Pol Maj Gen Phot said the investigators were also able to find the relatives of the two other deceased who lived in Yala's Raman district and Narathiwat's Rueso district.
They said the two others who died in the fuel tank were Manasaree Mawawa, 35, and Romesee Sayada, 35.
They said they recognised them by the clothes they were wearing and by their body scars, he said.
He also said the men were shot and hit with hard objects before being burned in the tank.
Pol Maj Gen Phot said a witness told the police that he saw a pickup truck entering his Ban Phong Phong village and leaving the village again within one hour on Saturday.
Investigators believed the men would have been killed outside the village before the culprits took their bodies and burned them in the fuel tank in the village. Business conflicts are one possible motive, police said.
Meanwhile, the relatives of three Muslim men killed in a suspected extrajudicial killing in tambon Nam Dam of Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district on Oct 15 are asking the Human Rights Commission to investigate.
They submitted complaints to Amara Pongsapich, the National Human Rights Commission chairwoman, asking the commission to look into the cases and bring the police officers involved to justice.
They met Ms Amara at a hotel in Pattani yesterday while Ms Amara was pursuing human rights violations in the deep South.