Narathiwat Bomb Kills One, Injures Nine

A bomb explosion in front of Rue Soh railway station in Thailand’s restive southern province of Narathiwat on Sunday killed one soldier and injured nine other people, security officials said. 

Police Colonel Reungsak Bangdang, Rue Soh police station chief, told a BenarNews reporter that a bomb attached to a motorcycle went off at the railway market Sunday morning while people were shopping from vendors in the vicinity. 

“Soldiers from Narathiwat 11 Task Force were shopping for food and necessities but a bomb hidden on a motorcycle was remotely detonated resulting in 10 injuries, among them 7 villagers,” said Pol. Col. Reungsak.

All were rushed to hospital in nearby Yala province, he said.

Early Monday, Sergeant Taweerat Onkwanpet, the only person seriously injured by the blast, died of his wounds, officials said. 

Waho Jeh, 52, who witnessed the explosion from a distance, said he thought at first the explosion was a training exercise by an explosive ordnance disposal unit.

“I came to the market with my wife and once I heard it and knew people were injured, I didn’t dare go near because there might be sequential bombs,” he said. “The government thinks incidents of violence are the works of separatists but there are opportunists exploiting the situation.” 

Security officials believe that Sulaiman Kuwaekama, also known as Pado Khori, 40, masterminded the bomb attack, Narathiwat 11 Task Force personnel told a BenarNews reporter at the scene.

He is a prominent insurgent in Narathiwat’s Rue Soh district who coordinates acts of violence with nearby networks in Narathiwat and Yala’s Raman and Sukirin district.

Police said the motorcycle used in Sunday’s blast was stolen from a teacher in Joh-I-Rong district who was shot dead by insurgents while riding home in 2012.

According to Deep South Watch, a monitoring group based at Prince of Songkla University in Pattani, 6,321 people died and 11,408 more were injured in violence in Thailand’s southernmost provinces between January 5, 2003 and January 15, 2015.