Interesting facts and figures about the Deep South for the past 12 years

This year’s January 4 marks the 12th year anniversary of the biggest arms robbery by Islamic militants when they raided the 4th development battalion’s Peeleng camp in  Narathiwat’s Cho Airong district and escaped with 413 weapons, mostly M16 assault rifles. 

          Ever since that daring raid which caught the camp’s defenders off-guard, service pistols and M16 assault rifles were robbed by militants from members of the security force, volunteers and teachers following bomb and gun attacks. The second biggest arms robbery took place in 2011 when a large band of militants attacked the base of an infantry company in Narathiwat’s Ra-ngae district and took away 65 assorted weapons.

          Of the 413 assorted weapons seized from Peeleng camp, only 98 of them were recovered by the security force. And 20 of the 65 assorted weapons robbed from the camp in Ra-ngae district were recovered.

          For the past 12 years, 2,076 assorted weapons were seized by the militants and 804 of them were recovered, leaving 1,272 in the hands of the militants.

          The followings are some of the statistics of violent incidents occurred in the Deep South for the past 12 years complied by the Southern Border Provincial Police Operations Centre.

          There were altogether 17,808 violent incidents in the past 12 years of which 9,407 were believed to be perpetrated by militant gangs. The violent incidents were broken down into 8,043 gun attacks, 3,328 cases of provocations, 3,026 bombing incidents, 1,647 arson attacks, 342 assaults, 259 clashes, 172 cases of arms robbery, 102 cases of brutal murder, 65 protests.

          Death toll for the past 12 years numbered 3,949. These included 2,624 civilians, 509 military personnel, 395 policemen, 140 teachers, 19 Buddhist monks and 325 suspected militants.

          The number of injured totaled 9,625 of which 5,561 were civilians, 2,461 military personnels, 1,424 policemen, 147 teachers, 24 monks and 31 suspected militants.

          For the year 2015, there were altogether 701 violent incidents compared to the preceding year’s 1,210 incidents representing 42.1 percent drop. Of all the violent incidents, 367 were believed to be perpetrated by militant gangs compared to last year’s 501 cases representing a reduction of 27 percent.

          Altogether 113 people were killed and 354 others injured last year compared to 232 deaths and 525 injured a year before. Death toll among the civilians totaled 60 followed by 27 military personnel, eight policemen, one teacher, one monk and 16 suspected militants.

          There are altogether 1,970 villages in the three provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat and four districts of Songkhla. Of these, the number of “red” villages which mean villages under the influence of militants has fallen to 136 from 319 in 2014.

          The number of “yellow” villages or villages placed under watch has fallen to 283 from 517 recorded in 2014. “Green” villages or villages which are free from militants’ influence increased from 1,160 in 2014 to last year’s 1,600.

          During the past 12 years, altogether 6,258 summonses were issued by virtue of the Emergency Act and, of these, 4,643 arrests were made. Summonses issued by the Criminal Procedure Code amounted to 4,963 and 2,604 arrests were made.

          Of the 9,887 security-related cases occurred last year, there were only 2,247 cases in which suspects were arrested. Of the 472 security-related cases that went to the courts, there were 240 cases in which the defendants were convicted and 232 cases ended with the defendants acquitted.

          Of the 456 militants convicted by the courts, 57 of them were given death sentence and 114 were given life imprisonment.

          Since the year 2004, 264,953 million baht have been allocated for the Deep South. Budget for 2016 fiscal year amounted to 30,866 million baht which was regarded as the highest ever.