Numbers game turns deadly

       Makers of fake car number plates in Songkhla are facing a crackdown on suspicions their plates are being used on vehicles connected to car bomb attacks in the far South, a security source says.
       Investigators have zeroed in on two fake plate makers in the commercial district of Hat Yai.
       Fake licence plates make it more difficult for police to track down the attackers.
       Many insurgents are reported to be hiding out in Songkhla's lower districts of Saba Yoi, Chana, Thepha and Na Thawi, the source said.
       They are believed to have fled from neighbouring Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces to evade arrest after launching their deadly attacks, he said.
       A member of a police bomb disposal squad said a new pattern of attacks was emerging in which militants were preferring to target populated areas, often in town centres, using powerful bombs aimed at causing heavy casualties.
       The source said the aim was to gain maximum exposure and media attention.
       The rebels are using all sorts of tricks to get the job done. For instance, in one attack a militant pretended to drop a wallet connected to a bomb detonation cord.
       A passer-by picked up the wallet and triggered the bomb.
       "This is a new trick as we have never heard of or seen anything like this before,"the source said.
       In Friday's bomb attack outside a crowded restaurant in central Pattani,the source said the bomb was loaded on to a motorcycle-mounted pushcart popu-lar for moving goods around a market.No one suspected it carried a bomb. The blast killed a man and injured 29 others.
       The source said setting off "spider bombs"- or a handful of explosives connected to a single remote control device - was now quite common in the South.
       The current Muslim fasting period is marked by rising insurgent violence.
       The insurgents appear to have intensified their violence because it is easier to single out Buddhist Thais for attack during Ramadan as their Muslim neighbours are mostly indoors performing religious activities.
       Yesterday, in Pattani, a defence volunteer was shot and injured by a gunman at the Sue Dang School in tambon Troh Bon, Sai Buri district.
       Kampanart Songkaew,24, was attacked while he was guarding the school.The gunman fled when he returned fire.