Are separatists training new recruits outside the Deep South?
The recent seizure of several replica guns for training and the capture of three Malay Muslims from Narathiwat at an oil palm plantation in Phatthalung province have prompted a few disturbing questions among security officials.
One question is whether these men have any connection with the southern separatist groups? If the answer is yes, then the next question is: Do the separatist groups use provinces outside the restive region to train their new recruits?
The replica firearms include M16 and AK47 assault refiles, M79 grenade launcher, 200 rounds of ammunition of different calibers, three telescopic sights, two knives, four swords, masks, krathom leaves and several cough syrup.
The combined police and army force which raided the oil palm plantation in Phatthalung on June 5 found one guest house and seven cottages in the plantation which was surrounded with barbed wire fence and trenches.
Security officials suspected that the place could be a camp for military training. But whether the facility was connected with southern separatist groups or not is being investigated with the three arrested suspects going through intensive interrogation.
Ms Jittiporn Kosayo admitted that she was the houseowner and the men came from Tak Bai and Muang districts of Narathiwat.
Informed sources said that several men managed to escape the raid.
The sources told Isra news reporters that there were no firm evidences to prove that separatist groups had trained their new recruits outside the three southernmost provinces although it was known that some separatists had received medical treatment or taken refuge outside the restive region.
On June 5 in Yala province, a police force seized two men while they were allegedly making bombs at a house in Muang district. The house owner, Mr Isaho Yako denied he had anything to do with the bomb-making materials while the two suspects refused to talk to the authorities.
Meanwhile Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman of the 4th region Internal Security Operations Command, disclosed that seven suspects and many items of bomb-making materials were seized from another house in Yala’s Muang district.
Interrogation of the suspects found out that the group was making bombs to be used before the start of the fasting month.