Thai and Malaysian police are looking into the provenance of 41 homemade pipe bombs that were seized last week near the border between the two countries.
Stopping a lorry during a routine road block 6km into Thailand near a village called Kampung Saring, police discovered the bombs inside. After interrogating the lorry’s 39-year-old driver, police now believe that the explosives may have come from Malaysia.
Security at border crossings are now being stepped up; however, police have made clear that details are not yet known in the case, and suggestions at this point that the bombs were picked up by the suspect in Kelantan are currently unconfirmed.
Questioned as to whether militancy in Kelantan, the northeastern state that borders Thailand, was a growing concern, the state’s deputy police chief Datuk Din Ahmad said that such extremism was contained and under the watch of state and federal police.
Thai police believe that the explosives were to be used in “staging attacks” by militants following the observance of Ramadan. Each unit weighed 0.5kg, and included timers. Several communication devices were also seized from the lorry.
Thai police believe that the smuggler used a narrow point in the natural border created by the Sungai Golok river to illicitly bring in the bombs.
