In late 2019, three young woodcutters were murdered by Thai troops in Bo-ngo Subdistrict, Ra-ngae District, Narathiwat Province. The government claimed initially that the killings occurred in a clash between paramilitary Rangers and terrorists. Later, the Human Rights Protection Committee, appointed by the Fourth Army Area Commander, concluded that soldiers mistook the dead men for terrorists and killed them as they were running away. Families of the deceased pointed out that the young men possessed nothing but wood cutting tools. Images of the dead men on social media showed that each of them was shot in the head—two of them sitting crossed-leg on the ground, leaning forward. The Commander of the Fourth Army Area issued an apology, a compensation payment of 500,000 baht for each death, and transferred the responsible commander of the 45th Ranger Forces Regiment elsewhere.