Thai army chief visits deep South

BANGKOK, July 24 (TNA) - Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha is visiting the Muslim-dominant violence-plagued Thai far South on Wednesday to follow up the security situation during the ongoing Ramadan fasting month of Muslims. General Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok before leaving for Yala province on Wednesday morning that he would look into which groups were responsible for latest violent attacks, as many groups were trying to blame the violence on government authorities. Accompanied by his entourage, General Prayuth later arrived at an ad hoc unit in the Tha Sap locality of Muang Yala district, where he and his delegation were welcomed and briefed on latest developments by Commanding General of the 4th Army Area Command General Sakol Chuentrakul. According to the army chief, there have been less violent incidents during the first 14 days of Ramadan, compared with the corresponding period of last year, and locals appear to commute increasingly at night. However, the army chief acknowledged that the present situation has not indicated overall conditions of the Thai deep South. The Thai army commander-in-chief and his delegation were visiting the 13th Yala ad hoc unit in Krong Pinang district on Wednesday afternoon, before attending a meeting of a government committee tasked with implementing policies and strategies to solve problems in the troubled Thai deep South, chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, on Thursday, aimed to follow up progress of solutions in the southernmost Thai region. Meanwhile, a bomb exploded in front of Chanae Hospital in nearby Narathiwat Province on Wednesday morning, killing two teachers by shrapnel, while their motorcycle crashed into a wall, and injuring three others, one of them is also teacher and the remaining two are local police officers. (TNA)