Seven dead in Thailand attacks


Burnt-out shell: Firemen putting out a fire from a bomb blast by suspected separatist militants in Sungai Golok in Thailand’s restive southern province of Narathiwat. — AFP

BANGKOK: Three people were killed and a dozen injured in four separate bomb blasts in Thailand’s war-torn deep south, police said, while another four died from shooting and arson attacks.

More than 6,300 people have been killed in near-daily conflict pitting troops and police against rebels seeking greater autonomy for the three Muslim-majority provinces bordering Malaysia since 2004.

In the latest spate of attacks, three people died on Friday evening when a motorcycle bomb exploded outside a karaoke bar in southern Songkhla province’s Sadao district, which borders the conflict-hit region and is frequently swept up in the unrest.

“Three were killed in the blast and four injured,” Major General Puthichart Ekachant, the deputy police commander for the southern region said.

Southernmost Narathiwat province saw three bomb blasts on Friday, including at a karaoke bar in Sungai Golok district that wounded eight people shortly before the motorcycle bomb went off, according to a statement by Thailand’s southern regional police.

Shortly after midnight an arson attack on shops in the same district left three more people dead, police said, while in a nearby area a 35-year-old Muslim man was shot dead by an unknown number of gunmen who fled the scene.

It was not immediately clear if the attacks were co-ordinated but they come during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan when the south often experiences an upswing in violence.

Thailand, a mainly Buddhist nation, annexed the southern region more than 100 years ago and stands accused of perpetrating severe rights abuses as well as stifling the distinctive local culture through clumsy, and often forced, assimilation schemes.

The majority of casualties from the more than a decade of conflict have been civilians with both Buddhists and Muslims falling victim to shadowy insurgents who target security forces, citizens and perceived representatives of state authority.

Security forces also stand accused of killing civilians in raids on suspected militant hideouts and rights groups have long urged an end to a “culture of impunity” among officials.

Thailand’s junta, which took over in a coup in May 2014, has vowed to reboot a stalled peace process with several rebel groups operating in the deep south but so far there has been little progress. — AFP

Article type: metered
User Type: anonymous web
User Status:
Campaign ID: 1
Cxense type: free
User access status: 3
   

Did you find this article insightful?

Yes
No

Next In Regional

Bursa seeking tie-ups with fintech companies
Muhyiddin expresses gratitude over safe arrival of Covid-19 vaccine
Covid-19: Cases up by 3,297 bringing total to 283,569 (updated daily)
Covid-19: 3,297 new cases, five more deaths bring total fatalities to 1,056
Shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines brings new hope in containing Covid-19, says MCA
United Airlines Boeing 777 lands safely in Denver after engine failure
Kuantan is now a city
Tony Leung and Andy Lau to team up again, 18 years after 'Infernal Affairs 3'
Khairy: National Covid-19 Immunisation Program to start two days ahead of schedule
Covid-19: Plane carrying vaccines touches down at KLIA (updated)

Stories You'll Enjoy