Two killed, five wounded in separatist attacks in southern Thailand

Two killed, five wounded in separatist attacks in southern Thailand

2011-06-09 07:45:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

NARATHIWAT, THAILAND (BNO NEWS) -- Two people were killed and five others were wounded on Wednesday in restive southern Thailand, MCOT Online news reported.

According to local authorities, a 54-year-old grocery owner was killed after two presumed insurgents fired three times at him in Cho Ai Rong district of restive Narathiwat. When police and other personnel came to the scene to investigate, accomplices hidden nearby detonated a 10kg homemade bomb in a metal box placed under a shelf using a mobile phone signal. A local government official, a security volunteer and three police officers were wounded.

The second incident also occurred at a grocery in Cho Ai Rong district. The 72-year-old owner was sitting outside his shop when two attackers parked their motorcycle pretending to be customers and killed him. Soon after, five police officers came to the shop to investigate the shooting. As their truck passed, a remote-controlled bomb hidden in a motorcycle was triggered, but no one was wounded.

According to police, the incidents may be the work of persons intending to expel ethnic Thai Buddhists from the areas.

Since 2004, around 4,300 people have been killed in Thailand's southern regions of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, as local insurgent groups renewed their fighting efforts against the government. More than 7,000 people have been injured in violent incidents launched by separatist militants.

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