Gunmen killed four people in Thailand's Muslim south in the worst day of violence since troops of the Buddhist-dominated government shot more than 100 suspected Islamic militants last month, officials said. In one of the attacks Wednesday, a man on the back of a motorcycle sprayed automatic gunfire at a group of Buddhist villagers chatting under a roadside pavilion in Narathiwat province, killing three and injuring two others, police Lt.-Col. Kachane Kojaparayuk said. Police found 10 shell casings and a note that read: "Do you feel pain when innocent people get killed, like you did to us?" near the scene of the shooting, apparently left by the attackers, Kachane said.
| Another brave warrior of the ROP, shooting up unarmed villagers. |
In a separate shooting, a local government employee in Pattani province was fatally shot by a man who was also riding on the back of a motorcycle, police Lieut. Wasan Saensuk said. Shootings by gunmen driving by on motorcycles have become an almost daily occurrence in southern Thailand in the last four months, leaving about 100 people dead, mostly policemen, government officials and teachers.
The violence has been blamed on Islamic separatists seeking to carve out a homeland in the southern provinces Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, the only Muslim-majority areas in the predominantly Buddhist kingdom.
| You want a homeland? We'll give you one, in hell. |
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