KL, Bangkok resume joint patrols

KL, Bangkok resume joint patrols

MALAYSIA: Malaysian and Thai military forces on Tuesday conducted joint patrols along their jungle border for the first time since the 1970s, after plans to resume them were sped up due to recent violence in southern Thailand.

Meanwhile, top defense officials denied a report quoting a Cabinet minister as saying several Thais had been arrested in Malaysia in connection with the violence.

"To date there have been no arrests," Deputy Defense Minister Mohamed Shafie Apdal was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the national news agency, Bernama. Armed Forces Chief Mohamed Zahidi Zainuddin was also quoted as saying no arrests had been made.

On Monday, the New Straits Times newspaper quoted Home Ministry Secretary Abu Zahar Isnin as saying Malaysian authorities had arrested several Thais in connection with the violence.

Soldiers from the two Southeast Asian neighbor countries last held coordinated border patrols during Malaysia's decades-long Communist insurgency, when rebels launched attacks in Malaysia from jungle hide-outs in Thailand. The insurgency had petered out by the 1980s. -- AP