NARATHIWAT, Feb 15 – Six core collaborators in Wednesday’s daring attack on a marine outpost in this southern province are in hiding in the Budo mountain range which spreads across Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani, according to a police report.
The Southern Border Provinces Police Operations Centre said government forces are carrying out a sustained search for the fleeing militants especially six key leaders who escaped to the dense Budo mountains which stretches across the Thai-Malaysian border.
The authorities identified the six as Mahama Marae, Abdulhakim Puta, Yaffri Saro-eng, Apandee Kapa, Ropae-ing Useng and Madaree Walong.
Police said the 18 assault rifles and revolvers seized from the insurgants were stolen from two military bases in the South and a police station in Yala.
About 60 men attacked a marine outpost in Narathiwat’s Bacho district early Wednesday morning. Sixteen of them were killed in the fierce exchange of gunfire.
