AFTER Thailand shut off electricity, Internet and fuel supplies from five points to Myanmar yesterday (Feb. 5) the neighbouring country’s Payathonzu border town, opposite Sangkhla Buri district in Kanchanaburi, plunged into darkness , Naewna newspaper said today.
This action was taken by the National Security Council because call centre scammers entrenched along the Myanmar side of the border have conned hundreds of thousands of people with there being over 557,500 cases so far and damage skyrocketed to 86 billion baht, or an average loss of over 80 million baht a day.
Whie Payatongzu was almost completely dark last night, Tachileik opposite Mai Sai town in Chiang Rai, was brightly lit after the town’s authorities switched to getting electricity from Laos while Shwe Kokko in Myawaddy, the scam hub opposite Mae Sot district of Tak province, was 40% darker than normal.
This morning around 2,000 to 3,000 day workers crossed over from the Three Pagoda Pass to work at approximately 39 factories scattered in Sangkhla Buri as normal.
Soldiers from Lat Ya Task Force and Surasee Force accompanied by police from Sangkhla Buri station and officials of this district heavily patrolled the border to prevent the smuggling of power generators and fuel to Payatongzu day and night since the power cut came into effect.
However no wrongdoers were found with the situation being smooth.
Even so, the entire town of Payatongzu was cloaked in darkness last night with no street lights and most people not having electricity in their homes. Only a few households that had installed solar cells or purchased generators had electricity while road users had to switch on their headlights for safety.
In another development the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army’s (DKBA) headquarters issued a four-point announcement yesterday as follows:
– DKBA will cooperate with the international community in combating human trafficking and abuse as is currently undertaken;
– The armed group will take steps to improve the lives and create job opportunities for the local people;
– At the request of Myanmar and other embassies the group will search for and repatriate victims of human trafficking in their area of control;
– The group will prevent and suppress drug use in their area of control.
However, it is noteworthy that this announcement was not signed and only mentioned the Central Executive Committee of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) with the order given by the Deputy Commander, Chief of Staff and Commander of the 1st Division and their telephone numbers stated.
CAPTION:
Payatongsu plunged into darkness last night after Thailand cut power supply. Photos: Naewna
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