Colonel Yutthanam Petmuang, deputy spokesman of the forward command of the Fourth Region’s Internal Security Operations Command, led senior local officials to announce progress in the case yesterday after 27 days of investigation.

Yutthanam said the Joh I Rong hospital raid on March 13 had shaken the morale of medical personnel and society as a whole.

He said security officials raided six hiding places of insurgents suspected of seizing the Joh I Rong Hospital to use it as a stronghold to attack the rangers.

Yutthanam said officials tracking the insurgents responsible for the attack had received tip-offs from locals fed up with insurgency. They were told that the group had withdrawn toward Tawe mountain.

The officials then tracked and found them in three hiding places in Joh I Rong district and three hiding places in Ra-ngae district.

One of the six places showed seven temporary shelters in which officials found several items of evidence such as maps and charts used for the attack at the hospital, many sets of uniform and scarfs of the 41st Ranger Taskforce and 48th Ranger Taskforce.

Yutthanam said the suspects confessed that the uniforms were worn by the insurgents to blame the rangers for being “responsible” for the attack. They also found equipment to make bombs and basic survival kits.

He said security officials had identified 12 people believed to be involved in the raid and attack including the mastermind, the motorcyclist, a suspect who rode pillion and sprayed bullets at the ranger base, and other collaborators.

With this evidence, Narathiwat Provincial Court approved arrest warrants for eight suspects involved in the attack, he said.

Apart from the hospital raid, the insurgents attacked the 31 special operation unit at Joh I Rong Train Station and implanted a bomb to prevent reinforcement troops at Tambon Chuab.

Yutthanam said that for Songkran, Fourth Army Region Commander Lt-Gen Wiwat Pathompak had instructed officials in charge of seven economic districts to step up security. This included Pattani town, Betong district, Yala town, Hat Yai, Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat and Tak Bai district. These seven districts could be targeted by insurgents to destroy economic confidence.