Thai security forces killed two suspects wanted in the fatal shooting of two police officers and arrested a third early Wednesday, capping a three-day manhunt across Thailand’s restive southern border province, according to several news sources.
The raid took place around 2 a.m. in Ban Nam Tok village in Sukhirin district, after investigators tracked the suspects’ movements to a hut in the area. The two men killed, identified only as Abdulmuklis, 23, and Sahman, 34, died in a gun battle with security forces during the operation.
Police Lieutenant General Piyawat Chalermsri, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 9, said Sahman was wanted on two arrest warrants for murder and theft. Abdulmuklis faced separate charges of theft and drug trafficking, and forensic examiners matched his DNA to parts of a firearm recovered from the hut.
Investigators said the two men fled Tak Bai district after Sunday’s attack, sought medical treatment in nearby Cho Airong district, and then moved between several hideouts in the area before security forces caught up with them. A third suspect, accused of helping the pair evade arrest, was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon.
Police recovered two firearms that had been stolen from officers during Sunday’s shooting, including a Glock pistol belonging to Police Corporal Traitos Kunsanthawasiri, one of the officers wounded in the attack. Piyawat said Wednesday’s operation followed standard tactical procedures based on evidence gathered over the course of the investigation.
Authorities say they have now identified 14 people connected to the Tak Bai attack. Along with the two suspects killed Wednesday, the other 12 have been detained for questioning, including the man arrested that afternoon.
Sunday’s attack unfolded shortly before noon, when a team of investigators from Tak Bai Police Station was conducting a drug related intelligence operation at a hut in a palm plantation in Ban Bueng Chalam village, in tambon Phrai Wan. An armed man opened fire on the officers with an M16 rifle as they were leaving the area.
Two investigators were killed: Police Sergeant Major Hamran Ha, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and Police Senior Sergeant Major Withaya Chaipromkaew, who was shot while pursuing the gunman near a bridge close to the hut. Three of their colleagues were wounded and taken to Tak Bai Hospital before being transferred to Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra Hospital for further treatment.
The attack triggered an immediate, large scale search involving police, military, and local administrative officials, who cordoned off the area and combed the surrounding plantation. Three men found at the hut were detained the same day for questioning about any connection to the shooting.
Investigators say they are examining whether the ambush is linked to the decades long separatist insurgency that has affected Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, and Pattani since 2004. The shooting is the latest in a string of attacks on security forces in the region this year. In July, gunmen attacked a security checkpoint in Narathiwat’s Ra-ngae district, killing several soldiers, and authorities separately issued warrants for five suspects in that case.
The three border provinces, which have Muslim majority populations and sit along Thailand’s frontier with Malaysia, have remained under heightened security since the insurgency began. More than 7,000 people have been killed in the conflict over the past two decades, according to security officials who track the violence.
