Triple bomb blasts in Pattani leave authorities more confused

DON PATHAN
PATTANI

The Nation

LIKE PREVIOUS attacks by Malay-Muslim separatist militants, the latest three bomb blasts have forced Thai security planners to scramble for answers amid growing fears that the vio‐ lence in the far South may be crossing a new threshold.

On Tuesday night, suspected insurgents packed two 80-kilogram bombs inside a stolen ambulance and parked it at the front door of Pattani’s Southern View Hotel. The driver, who drove to the vicinity with the siren on, jumped out of the vehicle and hopped on to a waiting motorbike before driving off.
A minute later, the bombs went off. The explosion ripped through the hotel’s lobby, shattering windows both in the hotel and surrounding shop houses, shredding vehicles and motorbikes parked nearby and sending shockwaves across the country, which has yet to come to terms with the recent spate of bombings in seven provinces in the upper South.

As expected, policymakers in Bangkok insist that the Tuesday night attacks in Pattani were not related to the ones two weeks earlier.

Suhaimee Dulasa, a senior member of the Patani Institute, a local civil society organisation, said he was perplexed at suggestions that the Tuesday night bombings, were meant to force the Thai government to make concessions at the negotiating table with MARA Patani.

“People in the region and just about everybody monitoring peace initiatives for the Patani region know very well that MARA Patani does not have any command or control over the combatants on the ground,” Suhaimee said.

From the looks of it, the bombs used on Tuesday night were deadly but not meant to come up with a body count.

The first bomb, a very small one, went off at about 10.30pm just outside a discotheque about 100 metres from the hotel. Nobody is really sure what to make of this explosion, be‐ cause it does not match previous attacks.

Previously, the first bomb – usually a small one – is intended to draw security officials to the site of the attack, where they are greeted by a much bigger and more deadly bomb set off by someone within the line of vision. A third bomb detonated harmlessly.

However, the one on Tuesday night was different, as the explosives-packed vehicle was parked more than 100 metres from the first bomb. And a timer was used to explode it. The incident has made political leaders even more confused as they work to quell growing fears that the attacks two weeks ago and the one on Tuesday night are related.

If the attacks in upper South were the work of suspected insurgents as suggested by officials, then it would mean the government’s policy for the restive region has failed, despite authorities claiming they are on the right track. The fact that the insurgents have the audacity to
continue with such attacks despite heightened security across the country suggests that they have no respect for the country’s security apparatus, local officials said.

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9/5/2016 Triple bomb blasts in Pattani leave authorities more confused