The head of the the Justice Ministry's Central Institute of Forensic Science believes bomb attacks in the deep South have increased as a result of the CIFS's decision to stop using the GT200 bomb detector.
CIFS director Pornthip Rojanasunan said yesterday the GT200 can narrow down the area where a bomb is located, but it cannot pinpoint the location.
She also said there were too many variables involved when using the GT200 for it to be infallible.
The CIFS stopped using the GT200 after government-backed experiments two years ago concluded it was ineffective. The military still uses the device, however, despite those concerns.
Khunying Pornthip said there have been more frequent bomb attacks in the South since then.
She said insurgents had also changed their tactics to try to get around detection devices and increased vigilance by authorities, moving away from planted bombs to dropping off explosives shortly before detonations.
This was seen in the explosion last Friday in Narathiwat's Sungai Kolok district, which was caused by a bomb placed soon after a military patrol had left the area. The blast injured 18 people and caused 100 million baht worth of damage to a computer company building.
Provincial officials said they would allocate a special fund to help the affected business operators construct a new building.
Narathiwat has paid 441,015 baht initially to 16 people whose properties were damaged in last week's blast, the officials said.
Pol Col Maitree Chimcherd, superintendent of Sungai Kolok police station, said officials are hunting five suspects they believe are behind the explosion.
Initial investigations suggest the suspects made the bombs in Sungai Kolok as they did not want to travel through checkpoints.
As Thailand has no long-range bomb detectors, the matter will be raised at an Asean forensic sciences community meeting in Bangkok on Nov 25-28, Khunying Pornthip said.