Police speed up probe into unrest in Thai far South

BANGKOK, September 4 (TNA) - Police have been hunting for people behind a spate of unrest incidents in the Thai far South marking the foundation day of the Bersatu separatist organization on August 31. Police Lieutenant General Paithoon Chuchaiya, Commander of the Operation Centre of Thai Police in Southern Border Provinces, convened detectives and investigators in the Thai deep South on Wednesday to follow up their investigation into the violent incidents on August 31 and to ensure that their work has been on the same track. Police Lieutenant General Paithoon later told reporters that security camera recordings showed that most culprits had raised Malaysia's national flags around urban areas and in some local communities but they managed to cover their faces from the cameras, which has obstructed the official investigation, and that the authorities concerned have, however, accelerated tracking them down. Meanwhile, Thailand's Anti-Money Laundering Board met today to follow up an official probe into money laundering related to narcotics and terrorism in the violence-plagued southernmost Thai region, at which it was reported that its transaction committee has checked 234 cases of transactions, seized assets involved in 65 cases and resolved to ask the court to confiscate assets in 39 cases, with all the assets totally worth nearly 100 million baht. In Satun Province, also in the Thai South, local police trained volunteers on policing and crime reporting, but Satun police chief Police Major General Narasak Chiangsuk affirmed that Satun has been free from terrorism and insurgency although insurgents have tried to lure local people to join them, acknowledging that local police have also tried to solve narcotic problems in the province. (TNA)