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Southeast Asia |
3 Muslims shot in Thai south |
2009-06-20 |
[Straits Times] SEPARATIST militants shot and killed three Muslim men in Thailand's south as violence intensified in the troubled region, police said on Friday. An unknown number of militants shot dead a 29-year-old man on Thursday night as he returned home from evening prayers at a mosque in Yala province, before dumping his body on a village road, they said. In the same province, separatists shot two Muslim males while they ate dinner - a 21-year-old who died at the scene and a 16-year-old who died later at a local hospital. The incidents come amid a spike in unrest in Thailand's three southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia, where more than 3,700 people have died in a five-year insurgency against the rule of the central government. Thai security forces late on Thursday sealed off a village in Yala and shot dead four separatist militants. Insurgents in the Muslim-majority region have targeted both security forces and civilians - Buddhist and Muslim alike. Thailand's government is struggling to curb the recent surge in violence, which included a bloody attack on a mosque in which gunmen shot dead 11 people during evening prayers last week. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday raised the possibility of making the south a special administrative zone as a political solution to the unrest but he ruled out granting any form of autonomy. |
Posted by:Fred |