Beyond force in the South

On Jan 4, 2004, about 100 militants launched an armed raid on the 4th Development Battalion at Pileng Military Camp in Narathiwat province.

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They seized 413 firearms and killed four soldiers during the 20-minute raid.

Over the past two decades, only 98 of the stolen firearms have been recovered. The raid also emboldened further robberies of weapons.

In 2011, militants raided another army camp and made off with 65 firearms, of which only 20 have been recovered.

More than 20 years later, law enforcement authorities have yet to identify or implicate those responsible for that 2004 raid.

Were the robbers members of Pulo or another separatist group? Were they part of a newly formed separatist movement with support from regional Muslim militants? Or were they merely "local bandits," as former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra described them in the immediate aftermath of the heist?

Regardless of who they were, the 2004 raid marked the beginning of systematic sabotage efforts by militant and separatist groups in the Deep South - Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla.