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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

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