The act of goodwill became public after it was posted on the Knights Border (also branded as the “Knights of the Southern Border”) Facebook page.
The Patong Police officers, Maj Suchart Chumphusaeng and Sen Sgt Maj Satta Sammueng, saw the family on the motorbike in Krabi on Friday (May 1), and asked if they could be of assistance.
The father driving the motorbike explained that he and his family had left Phuket because he no longer had work due to the COVID situation. With no money to support his family, he decided to go back to his home in Yala province, the post explained.
The man and his family were among the first to leave Phuket under the current project to allow people stuck on the island without any income to return to their home provinces, the man said.
Maj Suchart and Sen Sgt Maj Satta contacted Patong Police Chief Col Akanit Danpitaksart and were granted permission to give the family a lift all the way home to Yala before picking their bomb suspect in Pattani - a detour of only about 40km.
The kind act was much appreciated by the family, which had some 360 more kilometres to go to reach home.
The post by the Knights Border also noted, “People in trouble do not have enough to eat, they shoulder the burden and the cost of unemployment. The most wanted thing is to go home. # Share. Good stories in society.”
Patong Police officers returned to Phuket yesterday (May 2) with their suspect, Abdulstopa Sulong, 36, originally from Pattani, in custody.
Patong Police Chief Col Akkanit explained that Abdulstopa was arrested by Pattani Muang Police on Friday by the side of Pattaniphirom Rd in Tambon Anoru, Muang District, Pattani.
He was wanted on arrest warrants issued on Nov 8, 2016 and Feb 23, 2017, Col Akkanit said.
Abdulstopa was one of 11 suspects wanted for their involvement in the spate of bombs that detonated in many areas throughout Southern Thailand on Aug 10-12, 2016, Col Akanit explained.
Police are still working on searching for the rest of the other suspects, he added.
Col Akkanit did not reveal how many of the suspects had been arrested the bombings so far, but confirmed that Abdulstopa will be charged for his part in acting collectively to illegally possess explosives, as well as setting fire to other people’s property, and being member of a secret society.
In the aftermath of the bombings on Aug 12, 2016, which killed four people and injured 36 others throughout Southern Thailand, police were issued arrest warrants after DNA from a bomb in Phuket matched that of a known insurgent in the Deep South.