‘Dead’ town: At Kelantan-Thailand border, Malaysia’s drug war unsettles residents, businesses

RANTAU PANJANG, Kelantan: In its heyday before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rantau Panjang duty-free zone in Kelantan, a stone’s throw from Sungai Golok town in Thailand’s Narathiwat province, bustled with shoppers from both sides of the border. Located next to a bridge, roughly 100m long, that connects Kelantan to Sungai Golok, the duty-free zone would see a steady stream of visitors who crossed the border for school, commerce and other activities. Hundreds of students consisting of both Malaysia and Thai citizens were known to cross over from Thailand to attend school in Malaysia daily, for instance.