Father and daughter shot dead, bomb wounds five in Thai south

NARATHIWAT: -- (AFP) - Suspected Islamic militants shot dead a father and his young daughter in Thailand's troubled south, while a roadside bomb wounded five soldiers, police said Wednesday.

The casualties were the latest in a six-year separatist insurgency in the Muslim-majority southern provinces bordering Malaysia that has left more than 4,000 people dead and thousands more wounded.

Gunmen opened fire on the Muslim man and his three daughters as they rode a motorbike home from a religious school in Pattani province Tuesday, killing the 44-year-old man and his seven-year-old daughter, police said.

Early Wednesday a 15 kilogram (33 pound) bomb hidden in a gas canister in neighbouring Narathiwat province wounded five rangers as they drove in a pick-up truck to meet community leaders, they added.

The shadowy militant groups in Thailand's south never publicly state their goals but have targeted Buddhists and Muslims, civilians and security forces alike in their campaign against central government control.

The region was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until it was annexed in 1902 by mainly Buddhist Thailand and tensions have bubbled there ever since, flaring up into the current insurgency in January 2004.

-- ©Copyright AFP 2010-03-03

Published with written approval from AFP.

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Disgusting that they could shoot a 7 year old

Just plain murder.

Muslim insurgents killing their fellow Muslims?

I've never read the Koran, but isn't this against their religion? Doesn't sound like these people were infidels.......

All Religions say, :thou shalt not kill: Killing anything or anybody is wrong, I have been down south a few times, They even kill whole classes of small children , In the name of religion and because they want home rule. How does that give anybody reason to support there course.