CITYTASSANEE VEJPONGSA
Associated Press
UTAISHAWAN, Thailand (AP) — On Oct. 10, on the eve of the cremation of the young victims of the massacre at a daycare center, a clay brick was built on the grounds of a Buddhist temple in a small town in northeastern Thailand. Temporary furnace. A former police officer.
On 6 October, an early childhood development centre in Utai Sawan was brutally attacked with guns and knives, killing 36 people, including 24 young children. It was the largest mass killing of individuals in the country’s history.
Phra Kru Adisal Kijjanuwat, abbot of Rat Samakee Temple, about 2 miles from the scene of the bloodshed, said the 19 victims will be cremated in a collective ceremony, ending a three-day mourning ceremony for their families.
He said the bodies would be cremated simultaneously on charcoal-fueled open fires so that families would not have to wait long for successive ceremonies.
“We only have one furnace in the temple, we can’t cremate all the victims at the same time, and I don’t want any family to have to wait for a long cremation process,” Adisal said.
“After seeing their grief, I thought it would be better if we could have a ceremony at the same time, and all the loved ones could go through the final stages of this painful event together,” he said.
Two other nearby temples are also installing makeshift furnaces to address the remaining victims, the monk said. He said five families had opted to have funerals separate from mass burials.
Police identified the perpetrator of the massacre as Panya Kamrap, 34, a police officer who was fired after being charged with drug offences earlier this year.
A clear motive for the killing may never be determined after Panya’s suicide, but police say they believe his financial and marital problems, as well as his drug use history, were contributing factors.
According to Thai media reports, Panya was cremated in a neighboring province on October 8 after temples in Utai Sawang refused to hold his funeral.
