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June 17, 2006
Thailand: Man Behind Islamist Bombings Was Drug Dealer
News from Thai News Agency MCOT and the Bangkok Post reports that the man behind the bombings which hit three southern and predominantly Muslim provinces in Thailand, was a drug dealer.
On Thursday June 15 about fifty bombs were set off in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, killing three people and injuring ten. The following day, a further dozen bombs were detonated in the same provinces, mainly near railway stations. Seven people were injured in Friday's blasts.
We reported that on Thursday, a house had been raided in the district of Rangae in Narathiwat province. Four people, ranging in age from 38 to 53, were arrested. The owner of the house, Paosi Nisaro, was arrested.
It now appears that this man is a drug dealer, who used the proceeds of dealing to bankroll the bombing campaign. At the house, two pistols and a quantity of cash were discovered, which are now being examined. The money amounted to 220,000 baht, or $5,725. Thailand's Central Investigation Bureau has said that Poasi is a major drug dealer and a ringleader of the other individuals arrested in connection with the blasts on Thursday and Friday. Paosi and his four deputies will be sent to the forward office of the Royal Thai Police in Yala for more interrogation.
Another individual, Masae Useng, is said to have ordered the insurgent group known as Permador to carry out the bombings, states an intelligence source. He is a well-known headman of the insurgent movement.
Currently, Islamic religious schools, called in Thailand pondok are under close surveillance as these are believed to be a training ground for militants.
A security source has said that one of the Muslim insurgent groups in the south, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) has made a report in which it states it is planning to attack key authority agencies in the region. Their main targets are to be the Hat Yai police station and the HQ of the Provincial Police Bureau 9.
The BRN Coordinate has amassed 50 million baht ($1,298,267) to direct a bombing campaign from now until the end of the year.
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Another bomb went off this evening, in the karaoke lounge of the Yala Rama Hotel in the Muang district of Yala. One man was killed, and two women were wounded. The dead man was identified as Wuthisan Piyawannakorn.
Two fake bombs were found in Narathiwat, at the home of an MP from the Thai Rak Thai party of caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and another fake bomb was left in front of a hardware store in Pattani.
Since January 4, 2004, there has been an armed insurgency in the provinces of the south, which has cost 1,300 lives. Insurgents are said to wish for the three provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat to secede from Thailand. Formerly, these provinces, as well as two districts of Songhkla province comprised an independent Muslim sultanate called Pattani. A century ago, this sultanate's territory became annexed into Thailand.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at June 17, 2006 5:54 PM
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