Mosque massacre incident

Police drop charges against Ai Bayae mosque massacre suspect

By The NationPolice Wednesday drop charges against a suspected gunman they initially accused of being behind a massacre at a Narathiwat village mosque, killing ten instantly and injuring 12 others.

According to Issara News, police cleared Suthirak Kongsuwan on the ground that there wasn't enough evidence to make the charge stick. The agency quoted an unnamed police source saying the statement from eyewitnesses contradicted evidences, leaving investigators with no reliable information to follow up on the case.
A group of about six gunmen walked up to a village mosque in Ai Bayae village in Joh Ai Rong district on June 8, 2009 and commenced fire with automatic rifles and shotguns from various directions while Muslim villagers were conducting their evening prayer at the village mosque.
Several months later an arrest warrant was issued to Suthirak, a Narathiwat resident and a former paramilitary ranger who was dismissed from his job due to misconduct.
On Jan 14, 2010, Suthirak turned himself in to the police at the Crime Suppression Unit in Bangkok but maintained his innocent.
His surrender was billed as a "staged surrender", according informed sources, who said the suspect was taken to a "safe house" in Bangkok pending the arrangement and terms for his surrender.
Suthirak was immediately granted bail after his surrender.
Senior government officers said Suthirak has close working relations with rogue soldiers who often take matters into their own hand and members of the Village Protection Force (Or Ror Bor), a network of government-trained Buddhist militia that work closely with various security units in the three southernmost provinces. VPF was created in September 2004 by a retired army general, Gen. Naphol Boonthap.
According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) report, Napol conducted a two-week training course for the first 1,000 recruits in Narathiwat that month.
Army sources often expressed concern that defense volunteers such as the Or Ror Bor, unlike the rangers, are not accountable to any military unit and do not fall under anybody's chain of command.