Suspected insurgents launched coordinated robbery and arson attacks on multiple targets in the three restive southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat early this morning.
The targets included 7-11 convenience stores, a crushing plant, cell towers, CCTV cameras, a road grader, a saw mill and a car. Car tyres were also set alight on some roads, but no one was killed or injured.
In one of the arson attacks on a 7-11 convenience store in Muang district of Pattani, an employee told the police said that three armed men fired several shots into the air before they entered the store and ordered all the employees to leave. One of them refused and a rebel threatened to shoot him.
Then the rebels poured gasoline over the cashier’s counter and set it alight, before fleeing the scene on motorcycles.
Another 7-11 convenience store in Khok Pho district, in front of the district hospital, was also torched.
A sheet metal store in Muang district was set ablaze and a car and construction materials were damaged.
In Narathiwat province, police said that six targets in Cho Airong, Waeng, Su-ngai Padi, Rue So and Si Sakhon districts were attacked by suspected insurgents. This included the burning of a ten-wheel truck and a forklift at a factory, the burning of four road graders on Su-ngai Padi-Su-ngai Kolok road, the burning of a saw mill and CCTV cameras.
