YALA: A canvas vendor was battered, bruised, tied up and cruelly executed before his truck was stolen to be used as the bomb delivery system in the attack on a Big C store in Pattani on Tuesday.
The body of Nuson Khachornkham, 45, was brought to Yala Provincial Hospital in Muang district at about midnight on Thursday from Pattani Hospital. His wife cried while waiting for the body to arrive.
Doctors at Yala Provincial Hospital said that apart from a gunshot wound in the neck, Nuson was struck with a hard object in the face. His nose was broken and the skin around his eyes and cheeks was gashed open. There were marks on his neck, wrists and ankles where he was tied up. The body was found with its wrists tied behind its back.
Doctors collected DNA samples and fingerprints for investigators seeking to track down those behind the murder.
Detectives said that a "customer" phoned Nuson on Tuesday morning and asked him to install a canvas awning at a mosque in tambon Lipa Sa-ngo of Nong Chik district.
He left his home in tambon Sateng Nok of Muang district, Yala, at about 9.30am Tuesday. He drove his pickup truck past a checkpoint in tambon Tha Sab and headed for Highway 418, a road that leads to Pattani.
The last contact with Nuson was in Ban Maphrao Ton Diao village in tambon Lipa Sa-ngo of Nong Chik district at about 11.30am. The location is about 25 kilometres from his home and about seven kilometres from the Big C branch.
His truck was later parked at the Big C Supercentre in Muang district, Pattani, and exploded at about 2pm Tuesday, injuring 61 people.
His body was found in a paddy field in tambon Ko Po of Nong Chik district on Thursday.
Nuson's widow, Sawitree Khachornkham, said at his funeral in Yala municipality on Friday that her family with two young children had lost its breadwinner and she was worried about how they would survive.
She also said she was too afraid to stay in Yala.
