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| Southeast Asia |
| One dead and five injured in southern Thailand weekend violence |
| 2004-08-01 |
| A woman was shot dead and five people injured in a bomb blast in the latest violence to hit Thailand's restive Muslim-majority south, police said. Two men on a motorcycle shot the 39-year-old woman four times in the chest on Saturday as she went to a market in the troubled Narathiwat province where a surge of separatist violence started in January, police said Sunday. A bomb hidden underneath a bench in front of a policeman's house in the province exploded Saturday after it was set off by remote control when five people sat down. The policeman was among the five injured in the blast, none of them seriously. The attack followed the fatal shooting of another officer on Friday in the southern province of Yala. Police have been regularly targeted in separatist violence that has simmered in Thailand south for decades but took on renewed vigour in January after a raid by Muslim militants on an army base in January. More than 250 people have since died. Bombings and murders targeting officials, security forces and Buddhist monks sparked fears the conflict could broaden into major strife between Muslims in the south and the overwhelmingly Buddhist population of Thailand. Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula said authorities would increase security in the south over Thailand's national holiday that ends Monday to try to prevent an upsurge in almost daily killings. The violence reached a peak on April 28, when 108 suspected Muslim rebels were killed when they launched raids on police posts and checkpoints. In one of the clashes, heavily armed security forces raided a mosque and killed 32 Muslim militants armed only with machetes and a single gun. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra admitted Saturday the storming of the mosque was an overreaction and has pledged to release an independent report into the raid this week. Thailand offered rewards of family trips to Mecca for help in finding weapons stolen by suspected Muslim separatists in an army camp raid in the kingdom's restive south in January. The Thai army was offering a trip for a family of three plus spending money of 60,000 baht (1,450 US dollars) if tip-offs led to the recovery of the missing guns from an attack in the Muslim-majority province of Narathiwat, Lieutenant Colonel Akom Pongprom said. Four soldiers were killed and more than 300 guns were stolen in the January 4 army depot raid. A Muslim MP from Thailand's ruling party appeared in court Friday accused of masterminding the attack. "We do hope the rewards will bring tips for the recovery of stolen guns which can lead us to the rest," Akom said. |
| Posted by:Anonymous5089 |