YALA, Oct 8 — Police arrested a suspected insurgent in a search for illegal drugs in this southern border province on Monday.
Pol Lt-Col Aampai Chumchuay, deputy superintendent of Raman police station in Yala, Monday led a security team to search a village in Raman district for illegal drugs.
Seeing the police, two men stopped their motorcycle and ran into the forest.
Police apprehended and detained one man, identified as Kaman Chaichana, 35, who has outstanding arrest warrants and seized his 9mm handgun with some 15 cartridges.
The other man, Rorning Rorhing, 35, escaped.
Mr Kaman is suspected in several cases including a bombing and shooting which killed three soldiers in May 2011, a police vehicle bombing which killed five police officers in July this year and a shooting which killed a retired police officer earlier this month.
According to initial questioning, he confessed that he is a leading member of the ethnic Malay Muslim insurgent Runda Kumputlan Kecil (RKK) movement, southern Thai Muslim separatists, at an operational level, with 15 members in his team and heavy weapons.
He said he was involved in many attacks and moved to a hide-out in Raman district several years ago.
