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Buddhist beheaded, 2 others killed in southern Thailand
A Buddhist man in restive southern Thailand was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents who left a note by the body warning Buddhists to leave the area that has been gripped by bloody violence for three years, police said. Two others were also killed Sunday. The man and his wife were shot to death while working at a rubber plantation in Yala province, said police Lt. Kittiphong Phuduangjit.After shooting the man three times in the chest, the assailants beheaded him and left the head a few meters (feet) from the body with a note that said: "You crazy Buddhists. We will continue to kill you all unless you leave our land," said Kittiphong. It was signed by a group that called itself the Pattani Fighters, a reference to one of the region's troubled provinces, he said. Two other notes were left near the body with similar messages. In a separate attack, another Buddhist was killed in Yala by a gunman on a motorcycle, said police Lt. Narasak Chiangsuk, who blamed the attack on insurgents. Drive-by shootings and bombings occur almost daily in Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where an Islamic insurgency that flared in January 2004 has killed more than 1,900 people. Police, soldiers and others viewed as collaborators with the government are targeted, along with Buddhists. Buddhist monks have been beheaded, Buddhist teachers slain, and leaflets have been distributed around Buddhist villages warning that raising dogs and drinking alcohol are offensive to Muslims. Posted by: ryuge 2007-01-14 |
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