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| Southeast Asia |
| Former PM claims Daesh links to Thai insurgency |
| 2016-02-28 |
| [Bangkok Post] Thai security authorities quickly dismissed a claim by former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh that a Daesh cell was active in southern Thailand. Chavalit said he wondered if the government was aware that a group calling itself "Black Swan" which, according to him, is a Daesh affiliate, was establishing a presence in the far South. He was responding to a question about security matters during a meeting Thursday with reporters. Gen. Chavalit urged the government to launch a probe into the Black Swan group, saying the conflict in the southern Thailand has changed. Fourth Army commander, Wiwat Pathomphak, said he has not heard of the Black Swan group and there has not been any recent intelligence reports about it. Wiwat said security forces were monitoring reports about Daesh although there has not been any sign of Daesh activity in Thailand so far, said Lt Gen Wiwat. Jeh-aming Totayong, a former Democrat Party MP for Narathiwat, challenged Gen Chavalit to prove his claim about Daesh-linked activities in the in the far Suoth. Mr Jeh-aming said the former prime minister should not resort to spreading rumors to frighten the Thaksin Shinawatra camp who were lining up to discredit Thailand. He accused Chavalit of attempting to link the insurgency as part of a political agenda similar to the way Thaksin was now renewing his attempts to discredit Thailand from overseas where he is in exile. Meanwhile, one security source said both the National Intelligence Agency and the Immigration Bureau told a previous meeting of security agencies they had been alerted by their counterparts in other nations that one or two Syrian nationals, who are members of Daesh, had traveled to Thailand on tourist visas. According to the source, the two Syrian nationals had gone to Thailand's far South. This led to a search for the pair and a security alert both in the deep South and Bangkok, said the source. |
| Posted by:ryuge |