TUMPAT: Many Malaysians have postponed their travels to southern Thailand this weekend following rumours of unrest occuring due to 20th anniversary of Tak Bai tragedy.
Malaysians would usually flock the kingdom on weekends, especially southern province towns such as Tak Bai, which is located across from Tumpat, Kelantan.
Shoppers often go to Sungai Golok sub-province for day trips.
However, many Malaysians chose not to cross the border to Thailand ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tak Bai incident, which was yesterday.
"I was informed about rumours of the possibility of attacks or untoward incidents this weekend. It instilled fear among both Malaysians and Thais.
"The rumours had spread on social media in Malaysia and Thailand since Wednesday," said a boat operator who only wanted to be known as Azli.
The 25-year-old said the rumours caused many Malaysians to be afraid of going to Thailand.
"The number of people going to Thailand has dropped drastically as compared to the number of people going into Thailand before this.
"If before this, about 70 Malaysians will cross over to Tak Bai via an illegal jetty here, but since Thursday, the figure was less than 20," he said.
Azli laimed that many Thai traders operating at the Tak Bai wet market have also ceased their businesses this weekend.
It is learnt that Thai enforcement agencies such as the police and army have beefed up security in the southern provinces including those bordering with Malaysia.
On October 25, 2004, around 1,500 protesters gathered in front of a police station in Tak Bai to protest the detention of six men.
Police responded with tear gas and water cannons, when the crowd attempted to cross the police barrier into the station.
As tensions escalated, police fired into the air and then into the crowd, killing seven people.
The detainees were stacked one on top of the other in trucks and transported to Inkayut Army Camp in Pattani province.
At the end of the five-hour drive, 78 detainees had died from suffocation.
Meanwhile, a Tak Bai resident who witnessed the tragedy, recalled his experience when met by the New Straits Times.
The 73-year-old man who refused to disclose his identity for safety reasons, said he was at goldsmith when the incident happened.
"The incident was still fresh in my mind. I was in the gold shop with my second wife, to buy a necklace for our newborn daughter when suddenly the shop owner decided to close his business.
"Although all of us were not sure what really happened but for our safety, we left the shop in the hurry without buying the necklace.
"While on the way home, we can see many people near the Tak Bai police station but we did not stop our vehicle and decided to continue the journey," said the father of six.
The self-employed said he only knew about the tragedy after watching news on television.
"We are lucky to survive in the incident as it only happened about 300m from the gold shop.
"My youngest daughter is now 20 years old and yesterday, I have reminded her about the incident," he added.