Shootings greet `day of peace'

Fatal ambushes, shootings, and several bomb threats greeted a day of so-called peace in the three southern provinces yesterday.

In Pattani, a former public prosecutor was shot dead about 10am _ almost the same time as millions of ``peace'' cranes were airdropped over the troubled provinces.

In Narathiwat, a police lance corporal was shot and killed in an ambush. Authorities in Narathiwat and Yala were also called out to defuse several bombs.

The shooting of Nath Wipaset, 62-year-old former prosecutor, took place at his prawn farm in tambon Bang Khao of Nonk Chik district when he greeted two men who said they had come to buy lime. One pulled out a 9mm pistol and shot Nath before fleeing on a motorcycle.

Nath was hit in his right shoulder, in his ear and body and was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

One bullet also hit one of his workers, Saj Srisuwan, 44, who sustained serious injuries.

Nath was a Pattani prosecutor before he quit to run his prawn-farming business. Police are looking into whether his death was related to a personal matter or stemmed from the violence in the South.

In Narathiwat, a military-police patrol squad was ambushed by attackers armed with automatic rifles in tambon Sakor, Sungai Padi district, only 400 metres from Sakor police station. The attack occurred around 9pm when gunmen hiding on the roadside fired at a pickup truck carrying 12 officers visiting defence volunteers at a nearby village.

The attackers used M16 and AK47 automatic rifles. The officers shot back and Pol L/Cpl Sutharat Uppra, 25, was critically wounded in the crossfire. He died on the way to hospital.

Thirty minutes later, another ambush took place in Bacho district. Twelve army troops and defence volunteers were travelling in two separate pickup trucks when gunmen sprayed bullets at them on Petchakasem road.

An army private, Serm Sidaeng, attached to Chulabhorn camp, was shot in the right leg.

Two bombs, one a hoax, were also found in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat. The first bomb, a 10 kilogramme remote-controlled powergel bomb, was left at a Thai-Malaysian border market. Disposal experts managed to defuse that one, while a fake bomb wrapped in a black garbage bag was found near a wall of the Tak Bai immigration office.

Meanwhile, in Yala a bomb disposal team defused a bomb planted at the Wada rubber sheet cooperative office in Raman district. Villagers found the bomb on Saturday night as they gathered to put out a fire in the area, whose cause is still being investigated.