" nobody is asking why "

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TERROR IN HAT YAI: Blasts hit airport, hotel and Carrefour

Passenger killed, several shoppers severely injured in closely-timed bomb explosions

Three powerful explosions ripped through Hat Yai last night, killing at least one person and sending a wave of alarm through the security community that the violent insurgency that has rocked the three southernmost provinces has widened to other parts of the South.

A waiting passenger was killed when a large explosion tore through the departure lounge at Hat Yai International Airport.

About 10 people, including foreigners, were clustered in the area when a bomb concealed in a bag left unattended outside the information counter went off. About 500 people, mostly passengers, scrambled to safety outside the building, where they were left stranded for the night.

At about 8.30pm, some five minutes before the explosion at the airport, about 25 people were injured in a bomb blast near the entrance of a Carrefour supermarket. The bomb, which was hidden in a trashcan, sent hundreds of panicked shoppers running for their lives.

Authorities were brought in to look for further bombs near the airport. They scoured the site, including parking lots, where people were huddled together in shock.

Sutha Janthavivat, an eyewitness, said the explosion had a giant cloud of smoke, dust and debris billowing through the terminal. Bloodstains spattered the site.

A larger number of passengers were at the airport than normal because the weekend marked the end of the annual Cheng Meng festival, during which ethnic Chinese people return to their hometowns to make merit by tending to the graves of their ancestors.

Almost simultaneously, another bomb wreaked havoc outside the Green World Palace Hotel in Songkhla’s Muang district. The explosion shattered windows and mangled some 10 motorbikes parked outside.

Authorities brought in a machine to jam mobile-phone signals at the scene, believing the explosions had all been set off by remote control using mobile phones.

Television reports showed several badly injured and maimed people receiving emergency medical treatment. A girl was shown with severe abdominal wounds and a middle-aged man had both his legs blown off in one explosion. The airport was closed for the night, as were entertainment venues and public places throughout Hat Yai for fear that a nationwide terror campaign by extremists may have begun.

Defence Minister Thamarak Isarangura, however, downplayed the bombings, saying they were a local affair and merely part of the roiling spate of violence orchestrated by Muslim insurgents in the country’s deep South.

“This is not a challenge to the state. Our policy [regarding the insurgency] remains unchanged,” Thamarak said.

Army chief General Prawit Wongsuwan said the insurgents had taken their terror campaign out of the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat in a last act of desperation.
“[These bombs in Hat Yai] show that our measures are working in the three southernmost provinces,” Prawit said.

The Armed Forces supreme commander, General Chaisit Shinawatra, said he believed the bombings were the work of the same people who carried out an attack in Saba Yoi in Songkhla province. Suspects were taken into detention in the case but later released by authorities because of a lack of hard evidence.

A senior intelligence officer, however, said it had yet to be confirmed that the bombings could be classified as another episode in the spate of violence in the deep South that has killed about 600 people over the past 15 months.

If it proved to be the work of insurgents, people in Thailand should brace themselves for further attacks around the country, he cautioned.

The Nation

Hat Yai

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