Ice cream vendor beheaded in Thai Muslim south
An ice cream vendor was killed and his headless body left sitting on the bicycle seat of his cart in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south on Thursday, police said. The vendor, a 45-year-old Buddhist originally from the country's north east, was shot three times in the back of his head while riding his cart into a Muslim village in Pattani, one of the three provinces hit by the violence, police said.
"They chopped his head off and walked away with it, leaving his body sitting on the ice cream bike's seat," a Pattani policeman told Reuters by telephone. "Under current circumstances, he shouldn't have ventured into such a village," the policeman said.
The man was killed just hours before Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont flew to the region where 2,000 people have been killed in a three-year insurgency.
A police colonel was also shot in the head by a sniper while a security team was visiting a village Surayud and Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn were to visit, police said. He was seriously wounded and rushed to hospital.
Posted by: ryuge 2007-02-01 |