YALA: The pickup truck used as a car bomb in Bannang Sata district on Sunday morning was stolen from the Than To tambon administrative organisation in Than To district, according to security sources.
Sources from the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) said on Monday that the blue Toyota pickup truck belonged to the tambon Than To local administrative organisation and a public works assistant was the last person on record to use the vehicle.
The assistant was identified as Mustofa Malae, a 27-year-old from Ban Jarohpae in Than To district. When the vehicle was last signed out for use was not revealed.
Mr Mustofa was detained and taken to the 41st paramilitary ranger regiment for interrogation.
Pol Lt Gen Piyawat Chalermsri, chief of Provincial Police Region 9, said later the vehicle used was a four-door blue pickup. It was stolen on Saturday and its appearance was not changed when the bomb was planted in it.
He said the 16-kilogramme gas cylinder used in making the bomb was packed with explosive and chopped steel rods. It possibly weighed as much as 80kg before detonation. It was placed on the truck together with two containers of oil. The detonation was timed.
The car bomb exploded in front of a flat in a residential block at Bannang Sata police station late Sunday morning. A local Muslim teacher, aged 45, was killed. She was riding a motorcycle past the pickup when the bomb was detonated.
The explosion also injured 16 other people, six of them police officers.
According to Isoc sources, the pickup passed a checkpoint in Ban Kasod in Bannang Sata at 9.40am on Sunday and was parked outside the Bannang Sata police flats at 10.13am. The driver was picked up by a motorcyclist and left, and the truck exploded about 10 minutes later.
