KUALA LUMPUR — Three more attacks took place in southern Thailand last night after a shooting and explosion at the Sungai Golok District Office in Narathiwat province, according to Thai media.
According to the Bangkok Post, the second and third incidents after the attack at the district office also took place in Narathiwat, and the fourth occurred in the adjoining Pattani province.
After the attack on the district office, which killed two defence volunteers and injured at least 11 others, another explosion occurred, also in Pekan Sungai Golok, involving a bomb that was detonated outside a Big C retail shopping mall and near some railway tracks, the Bangkok Post reported.
The Nation, meanwhile, described the second attack which occurred shortly after the breaking of the Ramadan fast, as an explosion resulting from a detonated gas cylinder at a car repair shop which caused damage to nearby residences and vehicles.
Within the same hour, a bomb damaged electricity poles in Sungai Padi district, also in Narathiwat. Hours later, in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning, another bomb was found at a power pole at Ban Tahi Badoh in Waeng district, but did not explode, Bangkok Post’s report added.
The fourth incident, in the neighbouring Pattani province, was an attack on a security patrol in which one ranger was killed and two local officials wounded.
Patrol rangers had been on duty on a local road at Ban Hutaekorlae in Sai Buri district last night when assailants opened fire on them. Bangkok Post reports that there were no injuries in the gun attack but as the patrol unit continued on the road, a bomb exploded, killing one ranger.
The worst of last night’s violence was at the Sungai Golok District Office where the attackers drove up in a pickup truck, opening fire on volunteer security personnel at the district office gate. The assailants dismounted and threw explosives at the district office building, before speeding off in the same vehicle they arrived in.
Bangkok Post’s report also said the attackers, who were dressed in black with faces covered, detonated other explosives hidden in a car parked outside the district office compound.
Thai English-language media, Khaosod, described the attacks as coordinated, noting that objects like a gas tank and fire extinguisher had been placed in different parts of the area and later detonated.
Sungai Golok deputy mayor Apichet Jeh-Ouma has described the attacks as an attempt to cause chaos, noting that no party has claimed responsibility so far.
Besides the two deaths, he said 12 other are injured, four of whom have serious injuries, Bernama reported him saying.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has expressed her condolences to the family of those killed and ordered compensation to be given to them and to others injured.
The Sungai Golok Hospital, meanwhile, has appealed for blood donors of all types as it is treating several of the patients wounded in the attacks last night.
Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Razarudin Husain has ordered tightened security along the Malaysia-Thai border, including at illegal crossing points.
Thai authorities meanwhile, have issued a notice discouraging travel to Sungai Golok, and to carry personal identity as well as vehicle registration documents for inspection if travel there is necessary and unavoidable. – March 9, 2025