7 bomb makers nabbed in Thai Muslim south: Army

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Bangkok, July 3: Thai police said today they have arrested seven ''top bomb makers'' in the rebellious Muslim far south and charged them with terrorism.

''This raid has saved a lot of innocent people's lives,'' said army spokesman Colonel Atthadej Mathanom after a joint police and army raid on a religious boarding school.

Police said the men, aged between 16 and 34, were ''top bomb makers'' responsible for attacks on infrastructure and troops in Narathiwat, one of three provinces where more than 2,300 people have been killed in three years of separatist insurgency.

Five of the seven were on the wanted list, southern police chief Lieutenant-General Jetnakorn Naphitabhata told Reuters by telephone.

The raid, involving 200 police and soldiers who took two hours to get through a cordon of 700 students around the school yesterday, found gunpowder, wrist watches, batteries, mobile phones and a gas tank, the likes of which are often used in bombs, police said.

The raid followed a report by a villager who found blood stains and shrapnel at his rubber plantation near the school after an overnight explosion, Atthadej said.

Security forces say such schools are recruiting grounds for militants in a region that was an independent sultanate until annexed by overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand a century ago.

In nearby Pattani province, two militants armed with an AK-47 rifle and a pistol were shot dead by soldiers while they were planting three bombs made from fire extinguishers under a bridge today, police said.

Reuters>

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