Nevertheless, National Police Chief Gen Chaktip Chaijinda has instructed the Special Branch to look into the link between the death of the wanted militant and the bombings in southern provinces.

“We don’t have intelligence information (on the link),” he told the media after chairing a meeting at the Royal Thai Police headquarters today.

He said Thailand and Malaysia’s Special Branch departments always kept in touch with one another, adding that the Thai authorities were equipped with “measures” to deal with any threat posed to the country.

Chaktip was responding to a statement by Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi earlier today that recent incidents in southern Thailand, Jakarta (Indonesia) and Mindanao (the Philippines) were related to Wanndy’s death.

Wanndy, who was originally from Durian Tunggal in Melaka, was killed in a drone strike on April 29.

Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed his death.

On whether the IS terrorist group was behind the bombing of the Pramongkutklao Hospital three days ago, Chaktip said there was no such indication.

“If IS was responsible for the attack at the military-run hospital, the terrorist group would have openly taken credit like in previous terrorist attacks in other countries before this,” he said.

The blast at the hospital, which was caused by a pipe bomb, left 21 people injured.

Chaktip said the police had questioned 61 people and would question another 10 to 20 to gather more information on the hospital incident.

“The authorities believe more than one perpetrator was involved in the blast… the police are meanwhile investigating three letters which warned of an imminent attack on three other hospitals, located near the Pramongkutklao Hospital.”