Islamist raid in southern Thailand: five dead and six wounded
Bangkok ( AsiaNews / Agencies) - Five people were killed, including a Buddhist monk and a child of nine years of age, and at least six injured in two separate attacks that took place in the south of Thailand. The region has long been the scene of a separatist Islamist insurgency. Police sources report that both attacks were motivated by the violent murder last week of three young Muslim brothers.
Local witnesses report that this
morning four armed men on board motorcycles, opened fire against a monk as he
was collecting offers. The
attack took place in the district of Mae Lan , in the southern province of
Pattani. The
bullets struck and killed the priest and three other people present at the
scene, including a child. The
wounded include a law enforcement officer, who was escorting the monk.
In
the second incident, yesterday evening in the district of Yaring , again in
Pattani , a Buddhist woman of 29 years of age was killed. The
woman was on board of her motorbike on her way home when she was hit by a
barrage of bullets, after killing her, the assailants set fire to her corpse. They
also left a note on the crime scene addressed "to the head of the army",
in which they explain that "this is not the last body to [ avenge ] the
three brothers".
The three Muslim brothers ( three
, five and nine years of age) from the neighboring province of Narathiwat, were
shot last week in front of their home, as they returned from evening prayers at
the mosque. Their
father and mother (who is pregnant) were also involved in the assault, but
survived.
In
recent days, the Islamist faction had carried out a first act of retaliation for
the death of children: On 10 February, the wife of a policeman was killed and
then set on fire, in an episode very similar to what happened last night, in
the main market of the town in front of a terrified crowd.
A decade-long separatist struggle by Islamic extremists has engulfed southern Thailand on the border Malaysia, which has so far claimed over 5,900 casualties, most of them civilians. The Islamists want autonomy from Thailand, who annexed the region more than a century ago, and accuse the Thai and Buddhist authorities of human rights violations and of not respecting the local culture. Almost every day there are bombings and shootings; peace talks between the government and rebels are in an impasse , exacerbated by the political clash - between Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and the opposition led by the Democrat Party - which has been crippling the institutional life in Bangkok and throughout Thailand for months.
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