January 29, 2005

Three phone booths torched in Yala

 MUHAMAD AYUP PATHAN & WAEWDAO HARAI

Three public phone booths were torched yesterday in Yala's Raman district,

bringing the number attacked by arsonists in the province to 15 in only a

month.

 The first phone booth was set fire to around 3am. It was located at a road

junction in tambon Kayuboko. Pieces of oil-soaked burlap were found

scattered around the booth.

 The two other booths _ at Ban Thamnop in tambon Kalo and Ban Kate in tambon

Kotabaru _ were torched around 7pm.

 Anek Panboon, head of the Telephone Organisation of Thailand's (TOT)

operation section in Yala, said many TOT phone booths had been set on fire

in Raman and Bannang Sata districts.

 He said since Dec 31 last year, 15 public phone booths had been torched,

causing damage of about 560,000 baht.

 He said there had been repeated calls from people who wanted those public

phone booths nearby their homes to be removed and placed elsewhere because

they feared for their own safety.

 Meanwhile, Ban Mahae School in tambon Buemang was set on fire yesterday and

slightly damaged.

 Also yesterday, a fire broke out at a rubber processing factory in the

district, causing about three million baht worth of damage.

 The blaze started in a rubber drying machine about 8:30am at Mardec Yala Co

in tambon Lammai. It quickly spread to rubber sheets kept nearby.

 Police believed the fire was probably caused by some malfunctions inside

the machine.

 In Narathiwat, an assistant village head was seriously wounded in a gun

attack, believed to be the work of separatists wanting to spread terror.

 Niya Niyeh , 47, was attacked by two men on a motorcycle while selling fish

at Ban Luboyor village in Cho Airong district.

 The assailants pulled up near Niya's pick-up truck and the pillion rider

fired two shots at him, hitting Niya in the chest and right hand.