Three Muslims die as violence spikes in Southern Thailand

Posted by Mc Parry on October 7th, 2009 No Comments Printer-Friendly

NARATHIWAT, Thailand — Two Muslims were gunned down in Thailand’s restive south while a powerful bomb attack that injured dozens claimed its first fatality, police said Wednesday.

Suspected insurgents detonated the explosive on Tuesday by a hotel in Sungai Kolok, a border town in Narathiwat province, after launching bloody grenade and gun attacks on two restaurants which killed four and wounded 11 people.

Thai police officers inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Sungai Kolok, a border town in Narathiwat province, Southern Thailand, October 6, 2009. (Getty Images)

The car bomb wounded 27, according to police, and a 36-year-old Muslim woman later died. Five of the casualties remain in hospital. Eight cars and six nearby shops were also damaged by the explosive, which weighed 30 to 50 kilograms (66 pounds to 110 pounds) according to army spokesman Colonel Parinya Chaidilok.

Police also said Wednesday that a 38-year-old Muslim man was shot dead in Pattani as he drove his son to school on Tuesday, while a bomb later that day wounded seven security volunteer forces in the same province. In Pattani on Wednesday morning, gunmen shot dead a 47-year-old deputy village chief.

Following the deadly spike in violence in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, the deputy prime minister in charge of national security, Suthep Thaugsuban, said he would travel to the insurgency-plagued region next week.

He expressed dismay at the explosive in Sungai Kolok, as it was hidden in a car that had passed a screening by a bomb detection machine. The bloody rebellion in the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and parts of Songkhla has claimed more than 3,900 lives since it erupted in January 2004.

The shadowy Islamic rebels, who have never publicly stated their goals, target Muslims and Buddhists alike and both civilians and members of the security forces. They usually attack with shootings and bombings but have also used gruesome methods such as beheadings and crucifixions.

Tensions first surfaced in the region in 1902, when the formerly autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate was annexed by predominantly Buddhist Thailand. (AFP)