Imam, local leader arrested for car bomb in Pattani

PATTANI, May 13 (TNA) -- An imam and a local leader are among five men arrested for the Tuesday’s car bomb outside a shopping mall in Pattani province that injured 60 people. Police are also searching for eight more men implicated by the arrestees as accomplices in the attack. All five men are now detained at a military base awaiting formal charges. Police traced them down by the leads from the pickup truck they stolen to use in the attack. Owner of the truck, 44-year-old Nuson Khachornkam, was found dead on Thursday. The five men reportedly robbed the truck and shot dead the owner. Nuson was ambushed and killed after being lured to a mosque in Pattani’s Nong Chik district, according to investigators. Police say a leader of local administrative organization and an imam at a mosque coordinated and commanded the robbery, murder and bombing. The imam had been summoned for questioning many times for alleged roles in insurgent attacks. The suspects have told police that eight others were involved in the bombing; all of them are fugitives of previous crimes and now in hiding in border areas. Many of the victims of the shopping mall bombing were women and children, prompting condemnations from several human rights groups and international organizations. Col Yutthanam Petchmuang, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command, said the attack was intended to stir chaos and religious conflict. More than 6,800 people have died in the conflict since 2004, many of them civilians. (TNA)