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Published on March 17, 2008

Security forces went on high alert in the deep South yesterday, carrying out blind sweeps amid growing fears that more car bombings would be carried out after two such incidents on Saturday.

Roadblocks and checkpoints were fully manned throughout the region to form part of a security grid aimed at curbing the movements of insurgents believed to behind the blast that ripped through the CS Pattani Hotel.

Security officials were debating the significance of the bombings in Yala and Pattani and whether this constituted a real shift in the insurgents' strategy.

It was generally agreed that the incidents marked a new threshold in the ongoing violence in the Malay-speaking region where nearly 3,000 people, mostly local Muslims, have fallen victim to 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 mark-up of their capability," said Maj-General Thawatchai Samutsakorn, commander of the Pattani Task Force.

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

According to him, part of the reason for the shift has to do with the fact that security checkpoints tend to go after motorbikes, not cars. "This might have to change," Thawatchai added.

Thawatchai said it was very likely the incidents in Pattani and Yala involved operatives from the same cell, pointing to the timing and the fact that cars were used to house the explosives.

Over the past four years, home-made bombs hidden on motorbikes and set off remotely, along with roadside bomb attacks against military patrols in remote areas, have been a common tactic of the insurgents.

The two car bombs were programmed to go off at a certain time but it appeared that the Yala bomb exploded prematurely, Thawatchai said.

Thawatchai said three fire extinguishers, each stuffed with 10 kilograms of explosives, were used in the attack on the hotel. But only two of the canisters exploded, he said.

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

Yala's deputy governor Gissada Boonraj said at least two canisters, each with 15 kilograms of explosives, 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.

Authorities quoting eyewitnesses 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 Hotel killed two people and injured 15 others, including Pattani Senator Ausart Suwanmongkol and The Nation's reporter Mohammed Pares Lohasan. Six of the injured were admitted to hospital, some in an extremely critical condition. The two who died, a cook and a security guard, were hotel employees.

Over the past four years, insurgents have carried out numerous motorbike bombings. The attacks were aimed at soft targets such as roadside Buddhist-owned eateries and food stalls. But the use of cars marked a significant shift in tactics.

The CS Pattani Hotel has long been seen as "neutral ground" because it has served as a venue for extensive debate among top government officials, critical Muslim leaders, human rights activists and local politicians.

Separately, just before midnight on Saturday, suspected separatists burned down a public school in Pattani's Sai Buri district and engaged in a gunfight with police officers accompanying firemen to the scene. One policeman was killed and six others injured.

Don Pathan

Pattani