Southern Thailand
Two Thai Police Officers on Teacher-Protection Duty Injured in Pattani Roadside Bomb Blast
PATTANI – Two policemen assigned to protect teachers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack by suspected insurgents in Pattani province, southern Thailand, on Friday.
The two policemen were rushed to Pattani Hospital after they were wounded by a roadside bomb explosion while protecting a route used by teachers travelling to school, in Nong Chik district of Pattani on Friday morning.
The officer injured were Pol Sen Sgt Maj Prasert Phewla-or and Pol Sen Sgt Maj Kittipan Aksornkaeo.
The bomb was detonated on the side of a road teachers use regularly to travel to school in Ban Tha Yalo of tambon Tuyong about 7.55am.
The explosive device hidden in a garbage bin was detonated when the patrol police on their motorcycle passing by. They sustained wounds from shrapnel on their legs and bodies.
Pattani police superintendent Pol Maj-General Payawat Chalermsri said insurgent groups intended to stage retaliatory attack after their members had been arrested.
A manhunt is underway for attackers believed to be in the vicinity, he said
Meanwhile, Two monks were killed while two others seriously injured after militants armed with war weapons opened fires on them at their temple in Narathiwat’s Sungai Padi district on Friday night.
It appeared to be the first time that a Buddhist temple became the target of the attack.
Witnesses said a group of about ten men riding on motorcycles raided Rattananuparb Temple in tambon Tohdeng in the province at about 8.30pm.
They said some monks were fired at close range. One of the slain monks were Phra Kru Prachotirattananurak, chief monk of the district.
One of the monks was announced dead at a hospital nearby.
The ambush sent people living near the temple run for cover while some hid in their houses.
When security forces arrived at the scene, the attackers already fled the scene.
