Rail system a frequent militant target in Thai Deep South

Residents help repair damage from latest attack, and ask militants to consider how they are impacting riders – including students, the elderly and the poor

By Rapee Mama for Khabar Southeast Asia in Narathiwat

October 10, 2014
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Residents in Narathiwat who rely on the railway as affordable transportation pitched in to help local authorities with repairs after a September 12th insurgent IED blast damaged a track section along the Hat Yai-Sungai Kolok line.

  •  Commuters at Tangyongmas Station are glad damaged track sections of the Tanyongas-Sungai Kolok rail line are once again up and running, thanks to quick, community-assisted repairs after a September 12th insurgent attack.[Rapee Mama/Khabar]

    Commuters at Tangyongmas Station are glad damaged track sections of the Tanyongas-Sungai Kolok rail line are once again up and running, thanks to quick, community-assisted repairs after a September 12th insurgent attack.[Rapee Mama/Khabar]

With the help of some 20 local residents, a team of 40 State Railway Authority (SRT) repairmen working under strict military security managed to repair the tracks located behind Ban Tanyonglimore Mosque in Rangae district by the end of the weekend. Residents also helped cut back trackside vegetation that could be used by insurgents for subsequent attacks.

The blast by an improvised explosive device made from a gas cooking canister twisted the track and caused some structural damage. Still, the damage was far less severe than two May 14th bomb attacks in the same district that caused a 16-day hiatus in services.

Trains were cleared to use the repaired section at 4:30pm on Sunday.

Adun Tolaemah, who heads SRT's maintenance division that covers all of Tangyongmas, said his team replaced six concrete slabs and straightened or replaced some 100m of twisted railway track.

"We will continue to monitor that section periodically as trains pass to ensure that vibrations do not cause any curvature in the repaired track sections," Adun said, "but if we do we will have to get a budget from Bangkok because we are now out of stock in Tangyongmas."

Tangyongmas Station commuter Hamida Pohsoo told Khabar, "Bombings are pretty common along this railway line, but I guess we can consider ourselves lucky that nobody was hurt this time."

She added that locals-- especially the poor-- rely on the line to get around and make a living because trains are cheap (and even free for students in uniform and the elderly). "I use the train back and forth every day to transport my fruit for sale in Yala."

Hamida expressed fear about travelling the line, but said she needs to. "I need to support my family. If I don't do it, who would help us? But like all Muslims, I pray to Allah for safety every time I travel."

Doromae Bin Mayee, another local Muslim commuter , told Khabar the railway line is the lifeblood to the region's poor and any service interruptions affect "tens of thousands of people ".

"It is clear for all to see that those who planted the bomb did so to demoralise one and all, whether they be railway workers or the local poor," he said. "I hope we can have better security measures. I don't know why these villains choose to target railway lines so often, especially when most of the people who ride them are poor."

Doromae said he would like to tell those responsible to stop and think about the public and not target innocent civilians who use the train lines , and to ask the National Peace Keeping Council to improve railway safety for the lives and property of people living in the Deep South.

Reader Comments
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    • Ashari
      October 9, 2014 @ 10:10:28PM
    • Usually we need to raise awareness, particularly in each of us, so that our brief lives in this physical world can be beneficial for others. With this, we hope that our much longer or more lasting lives in the afterlife can be peaceful, free from the torments of the grave and hopefully free from the torture of burning hell fire because of our sins in this world. Let us be self aware.

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