Senator blames insurgents for Songkhla statue attack

A senator has blamed this week’s grenade attacks in Songkhla on the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu-Patani (BRN) insurgent group, saying it intended to discredit a policy to strengthen multiculturalism and promote economic development in the troubled southern border region.
Sen Chaiyong Maneerungsakul said the explosions at the construction site of a giant Guanyin statue in Thepha district were an attempt by the BRN to cause divisions between people of different faiths who currently live in harmony, and to also undermine the region’s economic development.
The Guanyin statue will be a new regional tourism landmark, drawing local and foreign visitors and generating greater economic activity for the local community, he said on Friday.
The resistance against the contentious Chana industrial development project in Songkhla is also an attempt to thwart the government’s policy to bolster the southern economy, Mr Chaiyong added.
The attacks at the statue site wounded two workers from the northeastern provinces and a young girl. The explosions started fires in the workers’ camp and destroyed a pickup truck.
Police found leaflets in Thai and Burmese with messages threatening the lives of people who dared to continue working at the site and elsewhere in the southern border provinces.
The 136-metre-high Guanyin statue, which belongs to TPI Polene Power Plc, will be the world’s tallest when completed and will be a new regional tourism landmark and serve as a viewpoint tower. Work at the 65-rai seaside site started two years ago and is expected to be completed in 2026.
A few hours after the attacks, two bombs exploded on a roadside near the camp but there were no injuries. The bombs were believed to target security officers investigating the first attacks.
The blasts startled students and teachers from the Demonstration School of Yala Rajabhat University at a scout camp at Pang Yang Resort nearby and they immediately decamped and returned to Yala.
Ekkachai Kaewrattana, chief of Thepha district, said authorities were examining video from security cameras to identify the attackers and also questioning witnesses.