As Thai diplomats negotiated for the release of Thai workers taken hostage in Hamas' deadly attack on Israel, prominent Thai Muslims, including a member of a university alumni association, operated on a parallel, more personal track.
Lerpong Sayed, a political science lecturer at Iran's Al-Mustafa International University, was teaching when Hamas terrorists stormed out of Gaza on October 7, killing 39 Thais and abducting 32 others along with the hundreds of Israelis killed and kidnapped.
Lerpong, the president of a Thai-Iran alumni association, immediately began reaching out to associates who might have access to Hamas leaders, establishing an informal group.
While it is unclear whether his group's intervention was decisive, Hamas has released 23 Thais since late November, most of them agricultural workers who earned about $1,500 a month, five times what they could earn at home.
"I think Thailand was the most successful in the world in helping the hostages," Lerpong said to VOA Thai. "From now on, we will use a similar channel … to ask for [Hamas] to free Thai people."
Official outreach
There are about 3 million Muslims among Thailand's predominantly Buddhist population of 70 million. Many of them have lived under emergency rule in parts of the country's south, where a Muslim insurgency has claimed thousands of lives over the past two decades.
Days after the Hamas attack, Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs began engaging with its direct counterparts while encouraging the opening of other channels for discussion, according to an official source who asked not to be identified. The goal: unconditional release of the hostages.
Soon after the attack, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, a veteran Muslim politician and current parliamentary speaker, and Syed Sulaiman Husaini, the leader of Thailand's Shia Muslims, connected with Lerpong's group and asked that its members use their personal and professional networks in Iran.
Lerpong told VOA Thai by phone that it made sense to reach out to Iran, a longtime supporter and financial backer of Hamas. As a onetime activist for Palestinian rights, he said, he already knew Hamas figures in Iran.
He was "already in Iran facilitating with the involved party there to find ways to release Thai captives" when the two prominent Thai Muslims called, Lerpong said, adding that Iranian authorities with connections to Hamas "also helped out."
By October 26, a Thai delegation was meeting with Khaled Qaddoumi, the Hamas representative to Iran. Twice sanctioned by the U.S., Qaddoumi was described by one of the negotiators as being "among America's top targets," according to Channel News Asia.
"After our group met Hamas officials, it appeared that they promised us that, if there was a cease-fire, Hamas would release the captured Thais unconditionally," Lerpong told VOA Thai.
And when a Qatar-brokered cease-fire came into effect on November 24, 10 Thais were among the first hostages released.
Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara, Thailand's foreign minister, told VOA Thai in November that logistical complications added to the difficulty of obtaining the hostages' release.
'Captors are not single group'
Middle Eastern officials had told their Thai counterparts that "it was difficult to bring the hostages out at that time because the captors are not single group; there are more than one, maybe even more than two. And the hostages may be kept separately," Parnpree said.
Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was quoted on December 5 by the Standard, a Thai media outlet, saying the remaining hostages would be released if there was another cease-fire.
However, there has been no further halt to the fighting since the beginning of December, and more than 130 hostages remained in Gaza as of Friday, according to Reuters.
Lerpong said the alumni group's negotiation team has reached out to "those who are involved from Hamas and Iran" to confirm the number of Thais who are still hostages and try to determine their fate.
"As long as Thai people are under captivity, our duty still stands," Lerpong said.
He said that in the future, Thai authorities may have to reconsider allowing workers to take jobs in possible conflict areas.
"During the negotiation, Hamas told us that they had no problem with workers from all over the world, especially from Thailand," Lerpong said. "But the problem is that their work site was in the disputed area."
Wasamon Audjarint contributed to this report.
