High alert after Pattani hotel bomb

Roadblocks and check¬points were fully manned throughout the region to form part of a security grid aimed at curbing the movements of insurgents believed to behind the bomb blast that ripped through the CS Pattani Hotel on Saturday evening.

Security officials were debating among themselves about the significance of the two carbomb incidents on Saturday in Yala and Pattani and whether this constituted a real shift in the insurgents' strategy and tactic.

Nevertheless, it was gen¬erally agreed that the incident marked a new threshold in the ongoing vio¬lence in the Malayspeaking region where nearly 3,000 people, mostly local Muslims, have fallen victims to the violence since January 2004.

"It's a change in tactic on the insurgents' part but I don't see this as a significant shift or a markup of their capability," said MajorGeneral Thawatchai Samutsakorn, commander of the Pattani Task Force.

"I don't think they have the capacity to sustain this type of operation," Thawatchai said.

According to him, part of the reason for the shift has to do with the fact that security check¬points tend to go after motor¬bikes, not automobiles. "This might have to change," Thawatchai added.

Thawatchai said it is very likely that the incidents in Pattani and Yala involved operatives from the same cell, pointing to the timing and the fact that automo¬biles were being used to house the explosives.

Over the past four years, homemade bombs hidden on motorbikes, and set off remotely by operatives, along with roadside bombing attacks against military patrol in remote areas, have been a common tactic of the insurgents.

The two car bombs were programmed to go off at a cer¬tain time but it appeared that the Yala operation had exploded premature¬ly, Thawatchai said.

Thawatchai said three fire extinguisher canisters, each stuffed with 10 kg of explosive materials, were used in the attack on the CS Pattani. But only two of the three canisters had exploded, he said.

Yala's deputy governor, Gissada Boonraj, said at least two canisters, each with15 kg of explosives inside, were believed to have been inside the car when the bomb went off. Three Casio wristwatches were discovered at the scene and it was believed that these watches were used as a trigger mechanism for the bombs, Gissada said.

The Yala blast occurred at midafternoon on Saturday in Muang district on the Sukayang Road, one of the main roads that runs through the zone where a number of provincial offices and installations are situated.

Authorities quoting eye¬witnesses said the driver came to a halt at the side of the road near the entrance to a public elementary school but nobody was around the area.

The attack at the CS Pattani killed two people and injured 15 others, including Pattani Senator Ausart Suwanmongkol and The Nation's reporter Mohammed Pares Lohasan. Six of the fifteen were admitted to the hospital, some in extremely critical condition.

The two victims, a cook and a securi¬ty guard, were hotel employees.

Over the past four years, the insurgents have inflicted numerous motorbike bombings. The attacks were aimed at soft targets, such as roadside Buddhistowned eateries and food stalls. But the use of automobiles to carry out a bombing over this weekend marked a significant shift in their operation.

CS Pattani has long been referred to by observers of the con¬flict in the deep South as a "neutral ground" because it has long served as a venue for extensive debate among top government officials, criti¬cal Muslim leaders, human rights activists, and local politicians.

Separately, just before midnight on Saturday, suspect¬ed separatists burned down a public school in Pattani's Saiburi district and engaged in a gunfight with police officers accompanying firemen to the scene. One police officer was killed and six others injured during the gunfight.

By Don Pathan

The Nation