Two suspects in the Tak Bai shooting killed on the run by police in Narathiwat

Police shot and killed two suspects in a clash in Sukhirin district of Narathiwat province last night. The men were allegedly involved in last month’s Tak Bai shooting and have been identified as ‘Abdul Mukris’, 23, and ‘Saman’, 34.

Pol Lt-Gen Piyawat Chalermsri, commissioner of the Region 9 Provincial Police Bureau, told the media today that the suspects sustained gunshot wounds in the August 2nd clash with police in Tak Bai district and escaped to Cho Airong district to get medical treatment, before going into hiding in Ra-ngae district and then Sukhirin district.

He said that police managed to track the two suspects down to their latest hideout and a Special Forces unit was dispatched to make the arrests, but both men died in a brief firefight as they tried to evade capture.

At the hideout, police found two handguns, one of them being a Glock which was stolen from a Tak Bai police officer.

Meanwhile, the forward command centre of the Royal Thai Police said that 11 suspects allegedly involved in the Tak Bai shooting are currently in military custody for questioning. One suspect is still at large.

The centre said that close examination of the spent shells found at the scene of the shooting in an oil palm plantation match some of those used by the insurgents in the fatal attack on the Bukeh Sami Road checkpoint in Ra-ngae district on July 22nd, which left five paramilitary rangers killed.