Thai security authorities visit deep South

BANGKOK, March 14 (TNA) - Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapa, who oversees national security, is visiting Thailand's insurgency-plagued deep South Wednesday to inspect the updated situation. Accompanied by Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha, General Yuthasak has traveled to Pattani province, where he is scheduled to discuss and review security measures in the far South with local authorities to make sure that their implementations will be in the same direction to ensure the effectiveness, in response to continual unrest in the troubled deep South. The Thai deputy premier and the army chief are also scheduled to be briefed up developments in the southern border region by the local authorities. The army commander-in-chief, meanwhile, told journalists that drugs and smuggling of goods appear to be also key factors contributing to the violence in the southernmost region, apart from insurgency. The army chief suggested that concerned parties take careful consideration in all aspects for a recent demand by a group of people in the deep South that soldiers be withdrawn from the troubled region. (TNA)