Article 110

Policeman's uncle, 70, shot dead by motorcycle hitmen

POST REPORTERS

A 70-year-old man was killed by assailants on a motorcycle but other ambushes failed in Narathiwat and Pattani provinces yesterday.

Choksak Siripaiwan, 70, of Narathiwat's Waeng district, was shot at close range by two men on a motorcycle wearing woollen caps about 11.20am while he was riding his motorcycle to his house.

He was hit in the right temple, neck and back by bullets fired from a .38 pistol. The victim was an uncle of Pol Cmdr Decho Julkaew of Mai Kaen police station in Pattani.

In the second attack Isama-ae Torha, 55, a kamnan of tambon Romsai in Narathiwat's Sukhirin district was ambushed while he was driving his pick-up to his house about 1.30am after a meeting at the district office. Two men sprayed bullets from assault rifles at his vehicle on Sukhirin road at Ban I-beuna village. The bullets hit the windscreen and a front tyre. Mr Isama-ae was cut by broken glass.

Also in Narathiwat, Marosae Maming, a village headman was shot but only slightly wounded at his house in Ai Tae Tae village in Si Sakhon district about 7pm. Marosae and his wife were taking fruit from their truck to the house when a gunman fired three three shots at him.

In Pattani, a driver employed by the provincial prison was shot at by two men on a motorcycle yesterday morning.

Somchok Hitawan, 42, was driving to work about 7.30am when two men wearing sarongs opened fire on him. Four shots were fired, hitting the side of the vehicle and the mirror.

In Yala, security forces destroyed a device suspected to be a bomb found near a mini-mart in Than Tho district.

The owner of a mini-mart in Than Tho district, Khwanjai Thongkaew, 40, reported a suspicious bag and a bomb disposal squad from Phraya Lithai camp was sent to the scene. The squad fired shots at the bag, which was later found to contain fertiliser, an electric wire, a clock and batteries, but no explosives.

Meanwhile, Police Region 9 announced it will donate 200 clocks to mosques in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins on Oct15.

Pol Col Sakhorn Thongmunee said the handouts were part of the ``Love Muslims, Love Thai society project''.