Two men, suspected of involvement in the car bombing of a police apartment building in Thailand’s restive southern province of Narathiwat in November, have been arrested, national police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittipraphat announced today (Monday).
He said that nine men, including the two in custody, are suspected of involvement in the attack on November 22nd last year. One police officer was killed, 25 other officers and 18 police family members were injured. About 70 apartments were damaged.
The two suspects arrested have been identified as Abdul Mubin Lateh and Uzman Sanee. Both allegedly admitted that nine people were involved in the attack. Five of the six cars believed to be used in the bombing plot have been seized.
According to police investigators, on November 22nd a man drove a black Isuzu pickup truck, with Trang province license plate Kor Khor 6961 and rigged with explosives, into the carpark at the police apartments and left the vehicle. The driver walked towards a waiting motorcyclist with a pillion rider and they all sped away on the one motorbike.
Pol Gen Damrongsak said police investigators traced the license plate of the seized pickup truck and discovered that it had changed ownership several times until, in 2021, it was sold to “Ms Saina”, the last known owner.
Eventually, the vehicle was offered for sale on a Facebook page and it was sold and delivered to two men on November 5th, in Mueang district of Narathiwat, one of whom was identified by witnesses as Huzbulloh Sanee.
Extensive examination of CCTV footage of traffic in Narathiwat shows that the pickup truck containing the bomb left Tak Bai district for Mueang district on November 22nd.
Regarding the bombing of the Hat Yai-Padang Besar freight train at Tha Pho station in Sadao district on December 3rd, and the explosion near that scene three days later in which three railway employees were killed and four others injured, the national police chief said that the explosive devices used were of the same type and are believed to have been assembled by the same perpetrators.
