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By APD writer Chen Jiabao
BANGKOK, Aug 17 (APD) -- Robbers detonated one of the trucks they robbed that planted with a bomb outside residences in southern Thailand's Pattani on Thursday, damaging a row of houses and injuring no one, local media reported.
Local media said the houses bombed out were residence of police. Defense minister Prawit Pongsuwan has ordered to tighten security in the country's deep south.
The explosion came after a daring truck robbery on Wednesday.
A group of at least seven armed southern militants in two pickup trucks raided a car dealership and robbed six pickup trucks in Songkla. The robbers took the shop owner and three employees as hostages.
Two of the hostages managed to flee but the other two were shot, one was killed, one was seriously injured, according to local media.
Police said that security officers later retrieved three stolen trucks and found one was equipped with a bomb, which was safely disarmed. The case is under investigation.
Observers believed the robbery was carried out by insurgents who were to use the trucks in future attacks.
The defense minister said authorities have already identified four suspects linked to the armed robbery of pick-up trucks, adding that people should not jump to the conclusion that the suspected insurgents' daring attack stemmed from loopholes in Thai security operations.
Thailand's southern area has been haunted with an insurgency started in 2004. The Muslim populations of the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat have been striving for independence from predominantly Buddhist Thailand.
The conflict has killed more than 6,500 in a decade.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
