PATTANI — Another convenience store was bombed and set ablaze in the deep South, while two suspects were arrested after a brief gunfight in this southern border province on Monday night.
According to the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), the incident occurred at a 7-Eleven store in Ban Ta Bae village, tambon La Nga, in Mayo district around 8pm.
Local police rushed to the scene and exchanged gunfire with the attackers. The store was set ablaze, and an armoured security vehicle was damaged.
After the shooting ended, police found bloodstains and spent cartridges at the scene. Security officials later arrested two suspects at a checkpoint. The men, identified only as Afdol and Aris, were taken to the 42nd Ad Hoc Paramilitary Ranger Unit in Nong Chik district for interrogation.
Convenience stores have been frequent targets in a spate of violent attacks that began in the far South on Saturday night.
Col Ekwarit Chobchupol, deputy spokesman for the Region 4 Forward Command of Isoc, said on Monday that 75 violent incidents had occurred over the weekend in Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla and Yala provinces.
Pol Lt Col Cherd Aksornrat, director of the secretariat of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC), said the attacks had injured 11 people and damaged 17 buildings, 40 vehicles, 32 power poles and four cellular-phone antennas.
