About 350 officials searched 13 locations in Krong Pinang and Bannang Sata districts that may be connected with vehicles stolen for use as car bombs, which police retrieved on April 5.

They detained four suspects including Abdulrohi Saniming, 43, a resident of Yala, who was wanted on charges of terrorism, insurgency and attacking a van in Yala’s Yaha district in 1997.

The others arrested were Rorpa Mamuloh, 35, Ali Jehubong, 31, and Matorhe Silae, 39 – all Yala residents.

Five other people were also summoned for questioning – Sa Udi Jehsamorjeh, 35, Sorbri Jehsamorjeh, 22, Roosdi Dorlohsae, 32, Usman Hamidong, 27, and Sabri Bungorsayoo, 32.

Sources said Abdulrohi’s colleagues knew him as “Pohlong”. He allegedly trained and mobilised people to be insurgents. He is a former teacher who taught Islamic studies and graduated from school in Indonesia.

Officials believe he has taken part in several attacks including an ambush and killing of soldiers in Yala in 2004, the killing of Madaoh Duwama in 2007 in Yala, shooting at Sithichai Chan-apiban in 2008, and allegedly carrying out a bomb attack in Yala in 2009.

Abdulrohi is said to have risen to a leading position after Makata Hama was killed in a clash with officials.

Meanwhile, Democrat Party chief adviser Chuan Leekpai has expressed concern about the situation in the Deep South, saying the problems have become hard to manage. He said the insurgency could not be managed by resorting to force or violence.

Chuan blamed former PM Thaksin Shinawatra and his government for resorting to force to crack down on insurgents who seized the Krue Se Mosque in Pattani in April 2004, and then for the Tak Bai incident that resulted in the death of 85 later the same year.

“Thaksin admitted to the foreign media that he made a mistake on these two incidents, even though he retracted [that remark] later,” Chuan said. He added that Thaksin’s order to dissolve the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre made it more difficult.