Author: Nirmal Ghosh
Publication: The Straits Times
Date: May 3, 2004
URL: http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4386,248905,00.html
Introduction: Outside of football
training, they planned militant strike
When the Su So village football
team won the local league championship last Sunday, the players were the
pride of the small community in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district.
But just three days later, the villagers'
joy was shattered when 19 of the players, dressed in black camouflage shirts
and red bandannas, attacked a police post. They were gunned down and killed.
'It seemed like they wanted to die,'
a police officer said. 'I don't understand why they did not surrender.'
The community is now grappling with
the reality that the attackers, who were aged 19 to 26 and armed with guns
and knives, led secret lives.
The motivation for attacking a police
unit equipped with automatic weapons was beyond the parents of the 19 men
educated in Islamic pondok schools in neighbouring districts.
'My nephew was a good man, he did
not even smoke,' said Mr Adul Lo-sae, his face showing stunned disbelief.
'I was shocked,' said the football
team's coach Pittaya Maephrommi, whose brother was among those killed.
'I couldn't believe it when the
police told me my boys attacked them with guns and machetes. They spent
hours training with me. I don't understand when and where they went wrong.
'Looking back, I now suspect some
strangers who appeared regularly at football matches may have been responsible.'
Su So village head Wahab Manida
said it never supported any separatist group. He believed the religious
schools may have something to do with the tragedy.
'We regret that we failed to look
after our young ones,' he said.
Some villagers recalled what they
described as the attackers' cult-like behaviour.
Two months ago, for example, the
19 men left instructions in the village cemetery saying they wanted to
be buried there.
'I think they were preparing for
jihad,' said the village head.
Others said the football players
who died admired Iraqi suicide bombers and loved watching television news
and commentaries on the Middle East.
Before they rode their nine motorcycles
to the police post, they had told their families they were going to serve
Allah and prayed in the mosque in the village.
When they reached the post, which
had been alerted by the authorities, two of the men who led the attack
were shot by the seven officers on duty.
The rest of the attackers took cover.
Hearing the gunfire, policemen living nearby rushed to the scene to help
their colleagues.
But police officers using loudspeakers
failed to urge the attackers to surrender.
The village head, who was at the
scene after the gunfight was over, said he saw bodies, backpacks and weapons
strewn about.
In some of the backpacks, police
found Islamic tracts.
The pattern was similar elsewhere.
In Klong Pinang in Yala province,
15 men aged 17 to 25 were killed in the front yard of the sub- district
office.
Sources said another group of 40
attackers, also from the local community, escaped into the forest.
In Pattani's Mae Laen district,
a group of teenagers arrived in a pickup and advanced on the police post
there 'like zombies', said police corporal Somsak Nuluen.
He told the Bangkok Post: 'They
didn't even try to duck when they were shot at. It was frightening.'
