ONE of two insurgents who rode up on a motorcycle to a water pumping station at Yala’s Suan Si Muang Dam in the dead of the night got badly injured when the improvised explosive device he was carrying to place there went off beforehand, Matichon newspaper said today (Jan. 22).
The injured insurgent, Mr. Nud Tanilo, 26, whose left arm got twisted and his face badly burnt from the force of the blast, was taken by rescuers to Yala Centre Hospital.
At 8 a.m. this morning Pol. Col. Panya Trirat, superintendent of Mueang Yala police station, together with Explosive Ordnance Disposal and forensic officers carefully inspected the water pumping station as it was feared this might be a trap to lure them in and then set off another bomb.
Found at the scene were fragments of a five- to ten-kilogramme improvised explosive device including an electronic circuit board and a shattered paint bucket.
Investigation revealed that the two insurgents rode up to the water pumping station at around 1.30 a.m. with the badly injured one having got off and carried the bomb to place there but it exploded as he was doing so. In his waist pack was found his passport and a piece of paper with instructions on exercising in Malaysian language.
Their motive was to disrupt water supply in Mueang Yala and injure officers who might come to inspect the device but errors were made in assembling and placing it.
CAPTION:
Police inspect the water pumping station where an improvised explosive device exploded at around 1.30 a.m. today, Jan. 22, 2022. Photos: Matichon
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