BANGKOK, March 11 (TNA) – The defence minister has ordered security officials to secure border areas to prevent weapons from being smuggled into southern border provinces.
Gen Wallop Raksanoh, secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), said Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon held a meeting of a government committee on southern border province solutions and it considered deploying more security personnel to southern border provinces for peace-keeping operations.
“The deputy prime minister instructed concerned organizations to secure local areas and ensure smooth voting as scheduled. After the meeting, Gen Prawit, I and our delegation will visit Satun and Phatthalung provinces to have updates on explosions there in the past weekend,” said the NSC secretary-general.
He did not narrow down possible motives of the bombings.
Panitan Wattanayagorn, advisor to the deputy prime minister supervising security affairs, said security authorities had warned of violent attacks for a few days as crowds had gathered at concerts in Phatthalung.
“Security operations are effective in the three southern border provinces. So insurgents move to Phatthalung. Authorities will be watching out for suspicious movements until the middle of this month or possibly until the general election,” Mr Panitan said.
Gen Prawit ordered police to seriously prevent the smuggling of weapons and bombs into border areas and authorities in the neighboring country would be asked to be helpful, he said. (TNA)
