File photo shows Piyawat visiting victims of the May 5 bombing in Pattani. — Bernama photo
BANGKOK: Thailand’s move to tighten its border with Malaysia, especially along the Sungai Golok which separates Narathiwat and Kelantan, is due to recent intelligence information it received on increased militant activities in southern Thailand.
Fourth Region Army Commander Lt Gen Piyawat Nakwanich has denied that increased monitoring by security forces along its border with Malaysia was borne out of fear that the Daesh terrorist group could be attempting to establish a foothold in southern Thailand.
Thailand has consistently said it has not found any evidence of Daesh infiltration into the country.
“The move to beef up security measures at the border is due to our internal insurgency problem as we have received information on the smuggling of firearms and explosives into southern Thailand by the militants,” he told Bernama recently.
Piyawat is hopeful the stationing of more troops along the border, especially at the notorious Sungai Golok, which also served as a natural boundary between Malaysia and Thailand, will put a stop to the smuggling of weapons, and the border becoming a route for militant crossing.
As the Fourth Region Army Commander, he is responsible for security in southern Thailand, including the Thai-Malaysia borders.
Besides addressing the issue of arms smuggling, Thai authorities are also hopeful that additional troops to patrol Sungai Golok will also ensure non-recurrence of the May 5 bombing at Kampung Tok Jamu in Sungai Golok, located metres from the narrow river.
Although the bombing did not claim any life, the authorities were instead, alarmed with the discoveries they made after the incident.
“They (the insurgents) took the (detonation) wire from our side to that (Malaysia) side and detonated the explosive device,” he said on the 6pm (local time) explosion which left five patrolling Thai border guards injured.
Thai investigators discovered the detonation wire which was used by the militants to detonate the 20kg Improvised Explosive Device (IED), stretching from the explosion site to the Malaysian side of Sungai Golok where they believed the militants had hid.
Part of the detonation wire was also found submerged in Sungai Golok.
Piyawat made it clear that the deployment of additional Thai troops at its border with Malaysia was not in response to a statement about an armed Malaysian Daesh suspect escaping to southern Thailand last month.
“It is a measure related to our internal insurgency problem,” he said.
A statement by Malaysia’s Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar last month had set the Thai media abuzz, in voicing their worry about possible links between the Malaysian Daesh operative and the volatile region of southern Thailand.
The media fears that the Daesh militant group, facing mounting battlefield defeats amid the shrinking caliphate in Syria and Iraq, is trying to open a new front in southern Thailand by taking advantage of its long, low intensity conflict which have so far claimed more than 6,500 lives.
The escaping 27-year-old Malaysian Daesh suspect, from Rantau Panjang, according to Malaysian police, was part of a domestic arms smuggling cell who had escaped to southern Thailand with a M-4 Carbine rifle and a pistol. — Bernama