KOTA BARU: Thai security forces are collaborating with Malaysian authorities in the search for three suspects, believed to be involved in the coordinated bomb attacks on several petrol stations in southern Thailand on Jan 11, who are now suspected to be hiding in the border area between the two countries.
Thailand's Fourth Army region commander Lt General Naratip Phoyanok said that DNA analysis by the Narathiwat province identified three individuals as the main perpetrators of the attack on a petrol station in Dusong Nyo Village, Dusong Nyo Sub-district, Chanae District in Narathiwat.
Speaking to the Malaysian media on Monday (Jan 19) through a local interpreter, he said the first suspect was identified as Burhanuddin Samae, 44, from Kampung 3, Mukim Ko Po, Nong Chik District in Pattani, after his DNA was found on the bomb circuit box, adding that the suspect also had two arrest warrants, including a case of assault in Pattani on July 23, 2019.
The second suspect, Hafiz Buesa, 28, from Chanae District, was previously linked to the attack on members of the Thai Army Ranger Company 1114 on April 27, 2017, which killed six members.
Naratip said the third suspect, Chi Masae, 44, from Rueso District, had eight arrest warrants, including cases of bombing and damage to electric poles in Pattani in 2018, as well as the robbery of a gold shop at a shopping mall in Sungai Golok last year.
He said the operation to track all the suspects was carried out in an integrated manner involving police and military teams, with tightened monitoring in border areas, in addition to sharing intelligence information with the Malaysian authorities to prevent attempts to flee across the border.
In the incident on Jan 11, a group of suspects is believed to have detonated bombs simultaneously at several petrol stations in the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, resulting in injuries to four people, as well as at a petrol station in Sungai Golok, approximately three kilometres from the Malaysian border in Rantau Panjang. - Bernama
