Two killed, eight wounded in Thai south attacks

Militants shot dead two Muslim rubber tappers in Thailand’s deep south on Tuesday, then detonated a bomb and wounded five policemen and three villagers who had rushed to the scene, police said.

The father and son were killed in a rubber plantation in Yala, one of four southernmost provinces where 3,100 people have died in a four-year-old separatist insurgency.

Police believed the victims, aged 47 and 28, were attacked because they worked as village defence volunteers. “The insurgents hate any Muslim who works with the government,” a police investigator told Reuters at the scene.

After killing the two men, the militants detonated a 20-kg (44 lb) roadside bomb as a police truck brought more officers and relatives to the plantation, police said.

Since the latest violence erupted in 2004, the rebels have never revealed themselves publicly or claimed responsibility for the near daily gun and bomb attacks in the rubber-producing region bordering Malaysia, annexed by Bangkok a century ago.

YALA, Tuesday, Reuters