Thailand's Ministry of Defence celebrates 127th anniversary

BANGKOK, April 8 (TNA) - The Ministry of Defence on Tuesday celebrates its 127th anniversary, the oldest-established Thai ministry. Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, as well as the caretaker deputy defence minister, the permanent secretary for defence and Royal Thai Armed Forces chiefs attended the ceremony, held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence in Bangkok. Yingluck then told reporters that she is worried over the situation in the violence-plagued Thai far South, after a spate of bomb attacks were reported two days in a row in Yala Province. The caretaker prime minister said she has, thus, asked the Royal Thai Armed Forces chiefs to implement measures to provide safety for local people and business areas. According to the caretaker prime minister, she has also assigned Deputy Prime Minister Police General Pracha Promnok to soon visit the southernmost region to follow up the updated situation. The caretaker prime minister later went to the Royal Police Cadet Academy in the capital's adjacent Nakhon Pathom Province to chair the Cabinet's weekly meeting. Meanwhile, security officers in Yala, both police and soldiers, held a meeting to discuss their cooperation on speeding up an official probe into a series of bomb attacks in the heart of Yala Province on April 6-7, killing one victim and injuring over 20 others. The security authorities said they believed the bomb attacks were carried out by the same group of at least four suspected insurgents, stating that investigators have been hunting them for prosecution. (TNA)