Hardware shopkeeper shot dead
An agriculture and hardware retailer was shot dead at close range in Yi-ngor district yesterday as Defence Minister Boonrawd Somtas called for understanding, saying the South's problems were complex.
A gunman walked into a hardware shop about 500 metres from the Yi-ngor district office. Police said the man had pretended to be a customer before drawing a handgun and shooting owner Therdsak Lipikarwong, 47, twice. Police said the victim's wife, Pornsuda, told them the gunman had fled on a waiting motorcycle after stealing a 10-kilogram bag of fertiliser. Police suspect the fertiliser will be used to make explosives. In Bangkok Boonrawd said the government "had only started working six months ago" and had inherited an enormous task in the South. He said the regional crisis was a mix of separatist movement, criminal gangs, smugglers and drug traffickers. The government is working to untangle this web of vice, he added.
The Nation NARATHIWAT
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