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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai jihadis burn school, bomb police, shoot man |
| 2007-03-20 |
| Insurgents set fire to a school in Yala province, and wounded a policeman when they denotated a roadside bomb against a patrol early Tuesday. Ban Bayor school in Yaha's district of Yala, which is currently under curfew, was set on fire at around 2 a.m. but police did not go to investigate until this morning for fear that insurgents might use this arson attack to lure police out and ambush them. Patrol police from unit 4402 responded to the scene at around 7.30 a.m. When their pick-up was still two kilomotres from the school, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb, damaging the vehicle and injuring a police officer. The blast also blew a hole of about a metre deep and three metre wide, police said. After the blast, police arrested five to seven teenagers whom they thought might be responsible for the blast. The men, however, claimed that they were rubber tappers and were simply working at a plantation near the blast. They are being interrogated by police. Villagers let police into murder school Villagers in Songkhla's Sabayoi district Tuesday lifted their cordon after blocking access to an Islamic boarding school crime scene for the third consecutive day. After barring police from entering Bumrungsart Witthaya Pondok (Islamic boarding school), the villagers allowed authorities to inspect the scene where invaders fired on the school and set off a bomb Sunday, killing two students and wounding eight other persons. Police have been trying to enter the school to gather evidence, but the villagers had demanded that only five unarmed officials, one journalist, and the police officer in charge of the case enter that school. Authorities rejected the conditions, because they needed specialised equipment to work at the crime scene. Sabayoi district chief Preecha Damkengkiart negotiated with the villagers. The school owner and the villagers themselves wanted the investigation to be conducted, but they required a journalist, they said, who will report unbiased news and they said they don't trust officials. Meanwhile, police had feared that if they acceded to the villagers request, they could be attacked and taken hostage as in an incident when two Marines were beaten and killed while blindfolded, with their hands tied behind their backs during a dramatic 18-hour hostage ordeal at Tanyong Limo village in September 2005. Meanwhile, in Narathiwat, a local resident was shot and wounded by a gunman in Sungai Kolok municipality. The man, Mahanwa Nimae was rushed to hospital. |
| Posted by:ryuge |