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Bomb, arson attacks hit south Thailand
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-27 17:16 YALA, Thailand -- A series of bomb and arson attacks believed to have been carried out by Muslim insurgents rocked a provincial capital in southern Thailand early Wednesday, police said.
The attacks, beginning before dawn, were staged at eight locations across the capital of Yala, said police Col. Ekarit Wiriyapap. Yala is one of three provinces in the country's deep south hit by a separatist insurgency that has killed more than 3,400 people since 2004.
A warehouse and several stores were burned down, while bombs exploded near a car showroom, a hotel and a bank, Ekarit said. He said the insurgents may have wanted to retaliate for recent intensified government operations against them. "The attacks did not aim to kill anyone but rather to cause chaos and intimidate people in the area because there were no people at the time and location of the attacks," he said. A pro-independence movement has long existed in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. It turned violent in 2004 after a period of relative peace. Many Muslims feel they have been treated as second-class citizens in a country dominated by Buddhists, but only a few thousand are thought to have taken up arms. |
