By Xinhua,
Bangkok : Two more suspects were arrested early Sunday related to the deadly bombing in the Thailand’s restive far southern province Narathiwat last week, bringing the total number of suspects nabbed to eight, media here quoted local officials as saying.
More than 200 personnel in a combined military and police force searched an unnamed village in Sungai Kolok, one of the most restive districts in Narathiwat, apprehending a man with two pistols, 181 rounds of ammunition, a large amount of U.S. currency, five cell phones, five bank account books, four motorcycles and a pickup truck, according to a report by Thai News Agency.
The arrested man told authorities that both the weapons and the dollars belonged to someone else. Another man, a 30-year-old homeowner, was also arrested for interrogation. The authorities seized a pistol, 26 cartridges, 76,000-baht (some 2,235 U.S. dollars) cash and a counterfeit motorcycle registration plate in his possession.
The two men were apprehended following a deadly bombing attack in the Sungai Kolok district on Thursday night. In the incident, a small bomb planted on a motorcycle parked at in front of a restaurant exploded first near the district police headquarters, causing no casualties but luring police, local officials, media and curious bystanders to the scene, a tactic frequently used by insurgents.
When a crowd had gathered, a larger bomb planted at a car nearby was triggered by remote control to kill two persons and injure 35 others.
On early Sunday, Senior army officials including Lt-Gen. Viroj Buacharoon, commander of the Fourth Army Region which is responsible for security in the South, held talks and agreed that soldiers in the area would tighten security, especially in residential and risk-prone areas, the report said.
Maj-Gen. Theerachai Nakvanich, commanding the Narathiwat Task Force, said all suspects are being detained for interrogation, and that the authorities now knew the origin of the bomb-laden motorcycle and car.
Intelligence officers have stepped up their activities in three Narathiwat districts to monitor movements of insurgents, Maj-Gen. Theerachai indicated.
Narathiwat was one of the three southernmost provinces — the other two being Yala and Pattani — where a renewed wave of insurgent violence broke out in early 2004 and has killed over 3,500 persons by far. Thai authorities have blamed Malay-ethnic Muslim separatists in the region as the main culprit.