Until April 23, the market will serve as a tourism promotion zone for the far South, organised by the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) and the five southern border provinces – Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, Satun and Songkhla. The market is open from 9am to 7pm, offering local products and cultural charms.

A similar event organised by the SBPAC in March had led to Bt70 million in sales.

Deputy Defence Minister General Udomdech Sitabutr on Friday presided over the new market, which has booths selling various products and also provides health information and free-of-charge flu shots.

THE GOVERNMENT is trying to determine whether coordinated but bloodless attacks in the deep South on Thursday night were related to the newly introduced constitution, as people in the predominantly Muslim region rejected the charter during the referendum last year.

Just hours after HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn endorsed the charter draft on Thursday, several bomb blasts and tyre burning incidents took place in four southernmost provinces.

“I am curious about the timing of these attacks,” Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan, who is also the deputy prime minister overseeing security affairs, said yesterday.

Deputy National Police Commissioner Pol General Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, however, suggested the attacks were linked to the unrest that has raged through the southernmost region for more than a decade.

“In my opinion, the attacks were not related to national politics. With simultaneous attacks, it is quiet clear that the attackers must have been from a big gang,” he said.

Prawit said he had instructed the chiefs of armed forces and the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Centre to look into the attacks and identify their motive.

According to the Forward Command of the Internal Security Operations Command’s Region 4, bomb blasts and tyre burning incidents occurred in 19 districts across four southernmost provinces.

The blasts damaged 52 electricity poles, causing blackouts in many areas of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla provinces.

Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the forward command, said tyres were also burned in many spots in the deep South on Thursday night.

His agency reported 31 coordinated attacks – 12 in Pattani, seven in Yala, nine in Narathiwat and three in Songkhla.

Officials said four attackers riding two motorcycles planted a bomb in front of Ban Pareh School in Pattani’s Mueang district, detonating it soon after, while a second unexploded bomb was found later.

Attackers also detonated three bombs and set tyres alight in front of a college in Nong Chik district and burned tyres and used explosives to damage utility poles in various locations in Yaran and Yarang districts.

The Provincial Electricity Authority spent about an hour restoring the power supply in the downtown area. The power lines in the other areas were to be repaired during the daytime.

In Yala, three power poles were damaged with home-made bombs, in the village of Joh Bantang and in Bannang Sata district. A power transformer in front of the Bannang Sata tambon office was torched and tyres and a power pole were set alight in three villages in Thanto district.

In Narathiwat, forward command said there were two bomb attacks in Sungai Kolok district, three in Tak Bai, two in Rusoh and one each in Waeng and Bacho districts.

In Songkhla the attackers torched tyres in front of a rubber plant in Chana district and burned down utility poles in two Saba Yoi district villages.

Following the incidents, territorial-defence volunteers carried out strict checks on vehicles in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district, the economic hub of the South.

Officials said security would be tightened in commercial zones until the end of Songkran to boost the confidence of Thai and foreign tourists.

The governments in Bangkok have struggled to contain violence in the deep South which has claimed more than 6,800 lives since early 2004.

No one specifically claimed responsibility, but it is widely believed that separatists orchestrated violence over identity and historical grievances as a vast majority of people in the region, which was annexed by Siam over a century ago, are Muslim Malayu.

Residents in the deep South rejected the charter draft in the August 7 referendum. Analysts said they disagreed over perceived religious discrimination as the charter gave too much favour to Buddhism.

AUTHORITIES have confirmed the controversial ban on passengers in the cargo bed of pickup trucks and extended cabin space will be implemented after Songkran. But road safety experts said yesterday there were more practical ways to ensure long-term road safety.

Their suggestions included:

• Registering personal cars and trucks so they can legally carry people and loads;
• Requiring owners of pickup trucks to have seatbelts and for seats with belts to be installed in the extended cabin space and the cargo bed of pickups;
• Banning pickup trucks that carry |passengers in the cargo bed from using Level 1 and 2 highways, but allowing them on Level 3 and 4 roads where vehicles go at lower speeds;
• Imposing a speed limit of 90 kmh and punishing motorists who exceed the limit harshly.

Academics said owners should be allowed to use pickups to carry many people to a specific event such as an ordination or funeral procession in rural areas. But such processions should be banned from inter-provincial highways and supervised by local police.

Most accidents were caused by drunk or reckless drivers, or people falling asleep behind wheel, so police should focus on those issues to curb road deaths, they said.

Police in Bangkok issued a letter yesterday to confirm that up to six passengers will be allowed to ride in open cargo beds of pickup trucks during the Songkran period from April 11-17.

The letter signed by deputy chief Pol Maj-General Jirapat Phumjit said that police will fine drivers and passengers in the front seat who fail to wear seatbelts, while allowing passengers to ride in the extended cab space. Operators of public transport vehicles including vans, taxis and inter-provincial buses will be fined if any passengers are found not wearing seatbelts, it said.

Pick-up ban was our idea, not PM: Prawit

Deputy Premier Prawit Wongsuwan, meanwhile, urged the public not to criticise Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha for banning passengers from riding in the open cargo bed of pickup trucks. He admitted that he and a joint committee had proposed such a ban for the premier, out of a concern for public safety.

In Phichit, provincial transport office chief Surachai Tabya led officials to inspect public transport vehicles, notably vans, and check on drivers’ sobriety to boost road safety ahead of the Thai New Year next week. He also warned van drivers not to let other drivers use their GPS card to avoid being detected for speeding, saying card owners would be held responsible for any illegal action by people borrowing their cards.

On Thursday, Transport Minister Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said his agency aimed to reduce road accidents on highways by 5 per cent against the 1,358 accidents last Songkran. Among the measures being taken are: repairs of roads, rest stops, a “real-time” traffic monitoring system, the free hotline 1586 and toll-free motorway services from April 11-18.

The bureau initially said the tremor that occurred in Tambon Bangnamjued in the district at 6.24pm was not a quake but probably due to land subsidence.

However the office issued confirmed on its website yesterday morning that it had analysed more information from the Meteorological Department and Department of Mineral Resources and concluded that the area had been hit by a minor quake.

Seismologist Paiboon Nuannin told reporters that the initial statement was based on the seismological office in the nearby province of Surat Thani not detecting any quake. But after it collected information from the other departments, the statement was revised.

The quake measured 2.9 on the Richter scale and was only about one kilometre deep. “Judging from the details, I assume that the earthquake is from movement of the Ranong fault line,” he said.

The quake took place at 6.24pm, sending local people running out of their houses in panic.

Villagers said that quake lasted about 15 seconds. Kittipop Roddon, Lang Suan district chief, said four houses suffered from cracks and minor damage due to the impact of the tremors.

There are 248 families in the villages.

Rattanawadi Srin-in, 18, said that she felt her house shaking and thought that an 18-wheel truck was running past. When she found that it was an earthquake, she ran out of her house.

Weerasak Rodwijit, 44, said he also felt the tremor and his child said it was an earthquake, so he and his family members ran out of the house. He found neighbours outside their houses too.

When he returned to his house, he discovered cracks.

A source at the Udomsuk Police Station, which is responsible to the case, said 49-year-old was sentenced at Phra Khanong Provincial Court on Friday

The court also ordered that Prasong’s car should be impounded and suspended his driver’s licence for six months. Prasong was released on Bt30,000 bail.

Prasong’s reckless driving, where the court heard he cut in front of other vehicles and stopped in the middle of road in the Prawet area on Thursday morning, was captured on video footage that went viral in Thai social media.

Prasong tested negative for alcohol or other substance abuse. He told police, when he surrendered on Thursday afternoon, that his action was meant to teach other drivers a lesson for driving too slowly.

Piyawat wrote to the Public Health Ministry to report that Dr Supat Hasuwannakit, the director of Chana Hospital in Songkhla, must have committed disciplinary offences by spending many work hours on activities unrelated to his duty and causing rifts in the society.

“It’s not your duty to raise the issue with the ministry,” Somboon Kamhaeng, secretary general of the NGO Co-ordinating Committee on Development’s southern branch, said in a statement yesterday. “We suspect you have an ulterior motive.”

The statement said that Piyawat would be better spending his time reining in the unrest in the deep South. It stressed that Supat had taken up a stand against the plan to construct a coal-fired power plant in Songkhla’s Thepha district, out of concern for people’s health. He was a participant in a forum organised by a government-appointed committee to gather public opinions and promote public understanding on the South’s energy situation late last month.

Many locals showed up at the Chana Hospital yesterday to express their support for Supat.

Supat said apart from his duty as a medic, he also had a duty as a Thai citizen.

Songkhla’s public-health chief Dr Utissak Harirattanakul, said Supat still worked as the director of Chana Hospital. “I have not received any order to transfer him,” Utissak said. He admitted that he had been asked verbally about Supat’s performance after a complaint reached the ministry. “My answer is that his performance is fine,” Utissak said.