An explosion ripped through a police-owned restaurant here yesterday, injuring six people, shortly before a spokesman for the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command (SBPPC) declared efforts to convince suspected insurgents to disarm a success.

The explosion demolished the wooden restaurant, which stood just metres from a residence for police officers and some 20 metres from the Pattani District 1 education office.

Eyewitnesses said it was “miraculous” that the six people injured in the powerful blast survived. Three of the victims work as public-school directors. One of the six had both his legs broken.

Investigating officials said the bomb, estimated to weight at least 5 kilograms, had likely been hidden at the back of the restaurant the night before. They believed the attack was the work of Muslim insurgents. A mobile-phone SIM card believed to have been used to trigger the bomb was found in the debris.

As investigators were combing through the burnt remains of the restaurant, SBPPC spokesman Colonel Somkuan Saengpataranet said the command’s effort to convince insurgents to disarm was gathering momentum with the surrender of more than 20 suspected insurgents.

“We will appoint them as goodwill ambassadors to their communities,” Somkuan said.

Yet that will happen, he added, only after the former militants have undergone a mandatory weeklong “re-education” course. The course sponsored by the Justice Ministry is designed to change the Muslim insurgents’ attitude towards and perception of the state, Somkuan said.

Meanwhile, by yesterday a total of 16 suspected insurgents had surrendered to the local Army authority in Chanae district of Narathiwat.

“I felt very uneasy being on the run,” said Suethe Bado, one of two suspects who surrendered yesterday. Masaleh Duedeng, the other suspect who surrendered yesterday, said: “I was afraid authorities would eventually catch up with us.”

The two turned themselves in to the 132nd Infantry Battalion.

All 16 suspects who surrendered in Chanae district are believed by authorities to have been members of the same cell of insurgents.

SBPPC officials said police and military officials have been told to treat suspects who surrender with leniency in the hope that other insurgents will follow suit.

Justice Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya reiterated that all those insurgents who lay down their arms would be treated justly. He predicted that in the coming days more militants would come forward. “Nobody wants to go through great hardships in the jungle,” he said.

Some of the suspects who turned themselves in over the past week told reporters they had been hiding in northern Malaysia.

Yet some officials said there was a growing concern that authorities might not be able to guarantee the safety of all insurgents who surrender.

Others dismissed the surrender of the few dozen insurgents as insignificant in the effort to pacify the troubled deep South, arguing that they were mere foot-soldiers, not key operatives.

The Nation
Pattani