Found weapons cache used during unrest, police say

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Found weapons cache used during unrest, police say







A cache of weapons found hidden in Si Sa Ket’s Kukhan district had been used dozens of times during the 2010-2014 political demonstrations, a senior forensic police officer said on Friday.



Pol Maj General Thawatchai Mekprasertsuk, deputy forensic police office chief, said that the identification numbers on the weapons revealed that they had been used more than 50 times during the unrest.







He was speaking after accompanying deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul to the site where the weapons were found. The weapons retrieved from a waterway included M-79 and AK-47 rifles, 21 RPG grenades and 70 grenades for 40-mm grenade launchers.



Srivara said most of the weapons were not manufactured in Thailand and were believed to be from Russia or former Russian states. “The weapons are old but still intact. Some were used in Thailand a long time ago,” he said.







Tawatchai said the rifles and RPG grenade launchers were used during the demonstrations in Bangkok areas such as Uthong Road, Government House and the Dusit Thani hotel.



The waterways where the weapons were hidden were about 40 kilometres from Thailand's border with Cambodia.



However, in a separate interview, the Second Region Army’s spokesman Maj General Akkaradej Boontiem, said that it was still to be determined whether the weapons were used in the political demonstrations back then.



The area where the weapons were found used to be an area of conflict for internal warring factions from Cambodia.
 
Prawit orders weapon sweep
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Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon has ordered a serious crackdown on illegal weapons of war after many of them were found in an irrigation canal in Si Sa Ket province on Thursday.

After a massive weapon discovery in the irrigation canal in Ban Khanoon Nuea village of tambon Sano in Khukhan district of Si Sa Ket, Gen Prawit said on Friday that authorities would conduct comprehensive checks for illegal weapons.

Police were investigating the source and trail of the discovered weapons, he said.

On the remark of deputy national police chief Pol Gen Srivara Ransibhramanakul that the weapons were similar to those earlier seized from a hardcore red-shirt activist group, Gen Prawit said it was an assumption and the investigation had not been concluded.

A local fisherman was using his net in the irrigation canal when he discovered the well-packed arms — 27 rocket-propelled grenades, 24 rounds of ammunition for M79 grenade launchers, 700 bullets of AKA assault rifles and 48 detonation caps.

Meanwhile, Maj Gen Akaradet Boonthiam, deputy chief of the 2nd Army, said in Nakhon Ratchasima province the weapons were found in a border area which was once a battlefield during a civil war in the neighbouring country. The discovered weapons were from that period, about 40 years ago, he said.

But Pol Gen Srivara said later on Friday the arms were brand-new and ready for use. He believed the weapons were from Russia.

Pol Maj Gen Tawatchai Mekprasertsuk, deputy commissioner of the Police Forensic Science, said AKA rifles and rocket-propelled grenades had been used for more than 50 times near U-thong Nai Road, Government House and Dusit Thani Hotel during political demonstrations from 2010 to 2014.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/security/1691108/prawit-orders-weapon-sweep
 
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