Narathiwat: The perpetrators planted a bomb, killing two father and son, a Border Patrol Police teacher. The perpetrators planted a bomb on the Si Sakhon-Chanae Road in Narathiwat Province. The pickup truck of the headmaster of the Border Patrol Police School and his son were driving past and overturned several times before attacking and shooting them again until they died. Officials believe that the perpetrators wanted to create chaos in the area.
According to Thai News Agency, after the incident, police officers from Sri Sakhon Police Station, Narathiwat Province, along with bomb disposal and destruction teams, and forensic officers from Narathiwat Province inspected the scene on the Sri Sakhon-Luboh Yuering Road near Ban Ai Kue Dae, Village 4, Tambon Sri Banphot, Amphoe Sri Sakhon. They found a white Mitsubishi pickup truck with a Phatthalung license plate that had skidded and was lying on its side in the middle of the road. The vehicle was completely damaged.
On the side of the road at the rear of the vehicle, the body of Pol. Lt. Suwit Chuaythewarit, 56, the headmaster of the Border Patrol Police School in Ban Tuengor, was found with a gunshot wound to the head and several wounds from shrapnel from an improvised explosive device on his body. On the front of the hood of the vehicle, the body of Pol. Sgt. Dom Chuaythewarit, 35, the 'teacher heir' who volunteered to work as a Border Patrol Police teacher to follow in his father's footsteps. He was an agricultural teacher at the same school and had the same gunshot wound as his father.
20 meters from the scene of the incident, officers also found a bomb that fell, which was a pipe under the road surface, 1 meter deep and 2 meters wide, with electric wires running into the dense forest. There were pieces of the bomb that the perpetrators had assembled and put in a picnic gas tank, weighing 20 kilograms, scattered all over the road and in the overgrown grass on the side of the road. Officers therefore collected it as evidence.
The investigation found that before the incident, Pol. Lt. Col. Suwit was driving a pickup truck from the school, driven by Pol. Sgt. Dom, his son, to buy equipment to repair chicken coops at Si Sakhon Market. After driving 4 kilometers from the school, they arrived at the scene of the incident. An unknown number of criminals were lurking in the dense forest on the side of the road. They used batteries to detonate bombs that were placed in culverts under the road surface. When the vehicle of the father and son Border Patrol Police officers passed by, it exploded, causing the vehicle to flip over several times. The father and son were thrown from the vehicle. Then, the criminals who were lurking in the forest on the side of the road got out and used M.19 guns to shoot the father and son in the head once each, killing them. They then stole the 11 mm. and .357 caliber handguns that belonged to both of them.
Pol. Sgt. Yusron Mama, Commander of the 44th Border Patrol Police Unit, a colleague at the Tueng Ngo Border Patrol Police School, said that the headmaster has been in the area for more than 20 years. At first, he was a Border Patrol Police teacher at the Ban Lao Border Patrol Police School, then moved to the Tueng Ngo Border Patrol Police School. Before that, he built a chicken coop. The headmaster went out to buy construction materials, which were not complete, before the incident.
While the commander moved the bodies of the pair onto a police helicopter from the 49th Ranger Regiment Task Force at Wat Si Sakhon, Village 1, Sakor Subdistrict, Si Sakhon District, to take the bodies of the father and son Border Patrol Policemen to perform religious ceremonies, the relatives will bury the bodies at the cemetery of Ban Na Wang, Village 8, Khlong Sai Khao Subdistrict, Kong Ra District, Phatthalung Province. As for the incident that occurred, officials believe that it was the work of a violent group of members to create a bad situation to cause chaos during the time that the Prime Minister will travel to perform a mission in Narathiwat Province on January 16.
For Pol. Lt. Col. Suwit, the headmaster of the Border Patrol Police School, Ban Tueng Ngo, Pathumwan Mechanic Memorial 13, Sri Sakhon District, Narathiwat Province, he has been determined, dedicated and sacrificed his personal happiness for over 20 years to help underprivileged students in remote and dangerous areas to have an educational opportunity to develop into good and intelligent people on the path of sufficiency economy in line with the royal initiative. This has led to him being nominated as a teacher who deserves to receive the 'Princess Maha Chakri Award' and being considered to receive the 'Outstanding Teacher' award in 2015 from the Princess Maha Chakri Award Foundation in collaboration with the Office of the National Education Council (ONEC), the Office of the Teachers Council of Thailand Secretariat and the Ministry of Education. He also received the 'Unsung Supporter' award from the 9th Kon Khon Kon Award, the Power of the Land, in 2017, for his dedication for over 20 years as a teacher in the southern border provinces to promote education for children in remote areas.