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Bomb triggered from Malaysia hurts six Thai border cops
 [BenarNews] Six Thai border policemen were slightly hurt Friday in an unusual attack when militants detonated a bomb from the Malaysian side of a narrow river that separates the two countries, according to officials.The late-afternoon attack occurred in Na Nak, a sub-district of Narathiwat province that lies across the border from Kelantan state in Malaysia, when militants standing on the Malaysian side of the Golok River triggered the roadside bomb. The attackers had planted the improvised bomb on the road and connected it to wiring that stretched across the river to a detonator on the bank in Kelantan, officials said. The militants set off the bomb as a truck carrying the border guards passed it. The deputy investigator at Tak Bai district police station said, "The assailants triggered a bomb to try to kill the BPP [Border Patrol Police Company] 4413 who were patrolling the street along the Golok River. ... We found pieces of improvised bomb near a water gate (on Thai side) and the trigger-wire ran across from Malaysian side." Such an attack is rare, but leaders of militant groups are thought to be hiding out on the Malaysian side of the border. Insurgents at times have crossed the frontier to carry out attacks on the Thai side before slipping back into Malaysian territory, according to Thai sources. The Golok River, which is also known as the Kolok River, is where a suspected Islamic State militant from Malaysia is thought to have fled across to Thailand as he escaped from Malaysian security forces. This week, Malaysian Police Chief Khalid Abu Bakar announced that his department had arrested six suspected IS members in raids in several states of Malaysia between late March and late April. But a seventh suspect, Muhammad Muzaffa Arieff Junaidi, was believed to have escaped into Narathiwat province, Thailand, on March 22. On Thursday, the chief immigration police in Narathiwat, said his department had records showing that Muzaffa had crossed into Thailand and returned to Malaysia "several times," through a border checkpoint at Sungai Golok. "The latest trip was on April 21 of this year. He has both countries’ immigration stamps. This happened before he was accused being an IS operative," said Noppadol Rakchart, the immigration police bureau chief in Narathiwat. Posted by: ryuge 2017-05-08 |
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