Thailand will prosecute eight former security personnel for their roles in the 2004 crackdown in Tak Bai, in which 78 protesters were crammed into army trucks whereupon they were crushed or suffocated to death, the attorney general's office announced Wednesday.

The decision comes weeks before the statute of limitations expires on the October 25 case, following a related complaint filed against seven former senior security personnel by the victims' families which was accepted by a court last month.

Only one individual has been identified in both cases.

"The suspects could have foreseen that their actions would have led to the suffocation and deaths of the 78 people under their responsibility," attorney-general spokesperson Prayut Bejaguran said in a press conference. 

A Narathiwat court summoned an ex-military commander last week, and issued arrest warrants for six former high-ranking security personnel after they failed to attend their criminal hearing related to the complaint filed by the families.

Tak Bai incident

The Tak Bai incident is a high-profile case that took place on October 25, 2004, in the southern province of Narathiwat. 

Seven protesters were killed by gunfire, while 78 more were crushed and suffocated to death in army trucks where they were piled on top of each other.

The Thai government, which was under the administration of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during martial law, expressed remorse for the Tak Bai deaths but denied any wrongdoing, while the police stated that some demonstrators were armed.

The crackdown was condemned by the international community and deemed one of the deadliest incidents amid a separatist insurgency that reemerged that year, leading to over 7,600 people killed in Thailand's dominantly Muslim provinces near Malaysia.