Thai Muslim communities in the South provided support to Jemaah Isalamiyah militants since some members of the communities were educated in the same places in Afghanistan and Libya, the Secretary-General of National Security Council Gen. Vinai Pathriyakul said yesterday.
Members of the militant group Jemaah Isalamiyah, including Riduan Isamuddin, widely known as Hambali and suspected of involvement in August’s Bali bombing, transited Thailand early this year, he said.
Apart from Hambali, Major General Tritot Ronnaritivichai, head of Special Branch Police, said that other radical militants involved in the Bali bombing also passed through Thailand early this year.
Mukhlas — an Indonesian national and a high-ranking member of the militant Jemaah Isalamiyah network — was in the kingdom in January, he said.
Alleged Al-Qaida operative Mohammad Mansour Jabarah, a 20- year-old Canadian citizen currently in US custody, also visited around the same time, he said.
Mukhlas is currently being held by Indonesian authorities, while Hambali remains at large. “They may have received help and support from some Thai communities in the South, but so far we have not been able to identify the supporters,” the NSC chief said.
The South was a sensitive area, he said, adding that there was a constant flow of foreigners travelling in and out of the country there and some were linked with groups of narcotics traffickers and money launderers.
Most of them are from neighbouring countries and open “front” businesses such as hotel and golf courses to cover their illegal activities, Gen. Vinai said.
Thailand has been identified by many Western intelligence sources as a shelter for terrorists, and the government admitted recently that the kingdom is not immune from acts of terrorism.
However, Gen. Vinai said the Kingdom was not such a hotbed compared with neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.
The NSC chief said security agencies
are on alert, especially in “vulnerable” places such as Don Muang Airport
during the long Christmas and New Year holiday period. The authorities
did not target specific groups or nationalities for surveillance, he said.