The other side of the story of ex-volunteer Hakim
The name "Hakim" or Abdul Hakim Daraseh in full, a former defence volunteer, was closely associated with several violent incidents which took place in Yala in February and April this year.
The ex-volunteer was alleged to be involved in the murder of an ageing couple, 66-year old Daloh Padung, and his wife, 60-year old Mrs Marieyae Padung, and the torching of their house in Ban Bannang Kuwae, Bannang Sata district of Yala on February 23. Leaflets were later distributed among the villagers accusing Hakim of being responsible for the murder.
Hakim was implicated in the grenade attack of a noodle shop in Muang district on March 3. Luckily, the grenade was a dud. Then, on March 17, a retired Special Branch police officer, Aekpong Sakdayuth, was shot dead at a gas station in Yaha district and Hakim’s name appeared on leaflets claiming responsibility for the killing.
He was also implicated in the fatal ambush of a village headman of Ban Kalang Nai in Banang Sata district and his two assistants, including a woman on April 2. The woman was beheaded.
Strangely though while Hakim’s name was implicated in several violent incidents, little was mentioned about the violence against his family members and the attempts on his life. For an instance, Hakim, his brother and a friend survived a bomb attack while travelling in a truck in Ban Banang Kuwae on February 16. Or the killing of his parents, Doromae Daraseh and Mrs Alisoh Hengdada, and a two-year old niece on Road No 410 that links Banang Sata and Muang districts on April 20.
The big question mark is: Is Hakim really a villain as alleged in all the leaflets distributed in Yala? Or is he a victim of disinformation spread by the separatists to avenge him for leaving their cause?
To find the answer to this question and to be fair to Hakim himself, Isra news agency had a rare chance to talk to him at an undisclosed location recently. The followings are excerpts of the exclusive interview.
The 26-year old Hakim began the interview with a talk on his school days when he first came into contact with members of a separatist group and then inducted into the movement.
The son of an ustaz ( religious teacher), Hakim said, since childhood, he liked to study the Koran and religious texts and regularly attended lectures and praying sessions. Until one day in 2003, he was persuaded a school friend to Ban Kalang where there were regular religious lectures. Since then he went almost every day although the locations of the lectures changed often.
One day he went to Ban Too Kor, close to Krong Penang district where he and other other young men were inducted to the separatist cause. Reluctantly he joined the movement and underwent arms and combat training until he completed the training programme with 12 other colleages.
His first combat mission came on November 7,2005 when he joined the attack of Banang Sata district police station. The attack leader, Bae Ming, was shot dead and he managed to escape unhurt.
Hakim admitted he was very frightened after the incident and decided to turn his back on the separatist movement. He went underground and took refuge at the house of his father’s close friend who is a religious teacher.
In 2007, Hakim volunteered to serve as a defence volunteer. He was accepted and assigned to work at Bannang Sata district office. He admitted that while serving as the volunteer he still kept contact with the separatist movement and made donations to the movement on monthly basis.
Hakim said he believed the movement did not trust him fully. Then on April 26, 2013, there was a clash between security forces and a separatist gang in Banang Sata district in which three separatists were killed. Hakim was not involved in the clash but he was assigned to take photos of the dead victims and, unfortunately, his picture appeared on a TV footage the next day. It was this incident that the separatists suspected that Hakim might have been involved in the clash.
One day Hakim received a phone call from a stranger suspected to be a separatist telling him to find a cemetery for his burial. He switched off the phone.
The last straw came when he went to a mosque in Bannang Kuwae when an ustaz came to him and whispered to him whether he had found his burial ground. Hakim said he told the ustaz that he was not ready to die yet because he had to feed his wife and children.
"They gave me three days but I protested strongly. They didn’t listen to me and declared that I could not live with them," said Hakim.
The ex-volunteer then went into a tea shop in his village, switched off the TV and declared to the people in the shop that he had broken up with the separatists.
Since then, there were four attempts, including two bomb attacks, on his life. Hakim said he was lucky to survive all the attacks because he was a fast driver. In one of the bomb attacks on February 16, his truck was badly damaged by bomb blast. He said he managed to survive because he fought back against the assailants. He said he found out later on that the assailants had prepared a container filled with petrol which would have been used to douse his car had he not fought back.
The ex-volunteer disclosed that he was once told by the separatists to kill his own father because the old man refused to help the movement to indoctrinate young recruits to join the movement.
His parents and a young niece were however killed allegedly by separatists in an ambush on April 20.