Alert over bomb-detonating watches
Police have warned vendors in major markets in Songkhla to keep a close watch for people buying digital watches, particularly of the Casio brand, since these could be used to set off bombs in the restive southern region.
Copies of the watches were distributed to the vendors during a meeting with the police in July, a Songkhla vendor said. "At the meeting police said that only genuine digital Casio watches could be used in making bombs. The fake ones cannot be used," the vendor said. Songkhla police chief Maj-General Worapong Shewpreecha revealed at the weekend that suspected militants in the three restive southernmost provinces - Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala - had been coming to Songkhla's Kimyong-Santisuk Market to buy mobile phones and watches, both of which are important components in making bombs. The suspected militants bought large numbers of mobile phones and watches of the same brand, prompting suspicious vendors to report the purchases to the police. Meanwhile, two men who were buying Durians were killed and a third injured yesterday by suspected Islamic insurgents in Yala province, police said. At least four suspects on motorcycles killed the two men and seriously injured the third in a drive-by shooting as the victims were stopped at a roadside fruit stall. Police said they had not ruled out the possibility that a personal conflict was a motive for the attack
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