Extends state of emergency in South for 3 more months

BANGKOK, Jan 18 – The Cabinet on Tuesday extended the state of emergency in Thailand’s three southernmost insurgency-plagued provinces for another three months.

The extension is the 22nd since the law was introduced in mid-2005 to restore peace in the southern border region.

The special law facilitates the operations of security agencies and allows them to detain suspected insurgents for an initial period of 30 days.

Earlier, the long-standing emergency decree and martial law were lifted in Pattani’s Mae Lan district Dec 28 as a pilot move to scale down security in the southernmost provinces, a move which would eventually lead to the lifting of the special law in other areas of the three provinces.

The emergency decree has been replaced by the Internal Security Act.

Meanwhile, violence continues unabated. A defence volunteer, identified as Udom Chaisit, on Tuesday was shot in front of his home grocery in Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to Pol Col Nitinai Langyanai, superintendent of Sungai Kolok Police Station.

Initial investigation found that a group of four attackers on two motorcycles stopped at the grocery. One of them, armed with a pistol, pretended to buy oil from the victim, and then fired three times at Mr Udom before fleeing the scene.

The investigators presumed that the attack was related to the insurgency in the region.

In Yala’s Raman, Pvt Nifazi Maerao, member of an army teacher protection unit, was wounded in a roadside ambush as eight soldiers on four motorcycles were on their way after finishing a teacher escorting duty in the morning.

According to the investigation, an estimated four assailants waiting in ambush fired at the soldiers, who fired back attackers before the assailants fled the scene. Spikes were strewn along the road to impede pursuit.

More than 4,300 people, including 138 teachers, have died since insurgency-related incidents resumed in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat in Jan 2004, with complicated and violent actions continuing to take place. (MCOT online news)