BANGKOK, Oct 2 (TNA) — Deputy Defence Minister Chaichan Changmongkol ordered tight security in the far South after a fatal road bombing that killed one soldier and injured six others in Songkhla province yesterday.
Gen Chaichan said that all parties were ordered to intensify security measures and intelligence and the order also reached the 4th army region commander.
The order did not increase the workload of security authorities who were trying to block illegal migrants in the far South to control the coronavirus disease 2019. Both COVID-19 control and security missions were already their everyday missions, the deputy defence minister said.
Regarding the report that an anti-government rally was planned on Oct 14 and would last seven days, Gen Chaichan said he hoped demonstrators would abide by laws as they had done so in the past.
On Oct 1 the fatal bombing hit a vehicle carrying infantry soldiers on Highway 43 in Ban Klong Pradu village of Thepha district, Songkhla.
The improvised explosive device used steel rods as shrapnel. It was hung on the median strip and detonated by radio.
Col Wacharakorn Onngern, deputy spokesman of the southern command of the Internal Security Operations Command, said soldiers from the 1st Infantry Battalion in Krabi province were traveling to Narathiwat.
Police and soldiers were main targets of insurgent attacks in the deep South and such attacks usually happened during the reshuffles of security forces in the region, he said. (TNA)
