Article 123

Army-police task force holds two men for student's killing

Source suggests dead man a police informer

POST REPORTERS

Two men suspected of killing a Prince of Songkhla University second-year student have been arrested and it has emerged the student may have been slain because he was a police informer.

The Fourth Army forward command said in a press release yesterday that Waehamee Jae-asae, 21, and Abdulloh Paka, were arrested by a combined military-police task force some time after they allegedly shot dead Dusadeeboon Ritthisunthorn, 23, at Prince of Songkhla University's Pattani campus on Saturday.

The men riding a motorcycle were stopped near the Chalerm Phrakiat bridge and taken in for questioning.

It was reported Dusadeeboon was making his way to his university dormitory when a motorcycle pillion rider shot him three times in the head with a .38 pistol before fleeing. Dusadeeboon died later in hospital.

The Fourth Army said the task force had put up roadblocks and detained Mr Waehamee, a ponoh school student, and Mr Abdulloh.

The men have not yet been charged.

Pol Col Somjit Nasomyont, Pattani's Muang district police chief, said the men had been invited to answer questions and would be released if they could prove their innocence.

Angry relatives said police had refused to explain why the two were being detained.

A source suggested Dusadeeboon may have worked as an informer for the authorities, gathering information about insurgents and their sympathisers and passing it on to police.

The gunman had apparently followed Dusadeeboon for several days.

The source said friends recalled Dusadeeboon taking a keen interest in Islam and having many books on the subject although he was a Buddhist.

Pattani police chief Thanacharoen Suwanno, however, denied the student had been covertly assisting the police.

Police said the murder was either motivated by the separatist insurgency or the result of a personal conflict.

Leaflets, purportedly written by Muslim militants, had threatened to kill one university student for each ponoh student arrested by the authorities.

An intelligence source said the authorities were now finding it harder to identify insurgents due to informers' growing reluctance to help.

Informers, including local leaders, were staying tight-lipped fearing insurgents might seek them out in revenge killings.

Many informers have apparently been identified by insurgents and murdered.

Armed separatist networks of the Barisan Revolusi National, the Pattani United Liberation Organisation and the Geragan Mujahideen Islam Pattani were reportedly beefing up activities in the deep South, raising concerns they may be preparing attacks during the upcoming Ramadan holy fasting month.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the government was unperturbed by militants' threats to kill more students.

The authorities would continue to arrest separatists and he urged people not to let insurgents shake their morale.

Dusadeeboon's body was brought to Trang for cremation yesterday.

His father, Pol Col Chakphanu Ritthisunthorn, a superintendent at Trang's Sikao police station, said losing his youngest son was unbearable.

The university has warned its students to exercise extreme caution. Police have increased the frequency of patrols in and around campus while exam schedules have been moved up so the study break can start earlier.

The university said it would also install closed-circuit televisions in some security blind spots.