Two suspects in southern petrol station attacks detained

Two suspects have been taken into military custody for alleged involvement in the bomb and fire attacks on 11 PTT petrol stations in Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces last Saturday night.

Informed military sources say that security officers tracked the suspects using CCTV footage, until they we able to apprehend one of them in Pattani province.

The second was arrested in Yala province. All of them have several outstanding warrants against them for previous criminal activities.

The sources say that the third suspect’s arrest was attributable to a cigarette end found at a PTT petrol station on Highway 418, in Tha Sarb sub-district of Yala province.

The cigarette filter was sent to a forensics lab for DNA testing. The result matches a DNA sample taken from Sulaiman Lehnu, who was then arrested.

Regarding financial help for the owners of the damaged petrol stations, Piyasiri Wattanavrangkul, secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, said that the centre will act as a go-between in seeking low interest loans from commercial banks.

Insurgent groups launched coordinated bomb and fire attacks against the 11 petrol stations, located on Highway 418 which pass through the three southern provinces.

Arriving on motorcycles, they placed improvised explosive devices near the fuel pumps, which they detonated as they fled from the scenes.

A convenience store at a petrol station was also torched.