Attacks on weekend kill two in South
Passers-by look at the sign outside the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre in Yala’s Muang district. The agency, which was dismantled by former premier Thaksin Shinawatra in 2001, has been revived and will become active on Wednesday.
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Bombings and shootings marred another weekend in the deep South, with two people killed and four wounded in a series of attacks.
Cattle herder Asi Doropae, 45, was shot dead at the roadside in Krong Pinang district yesterday. Police said two gunmen opened fire at him with a shotgun as he was riding his motorcycle to work. Asi, whose body was riddled with bullets, died where he fell. Earlier the same day an unknown number of gunmen opened fire at Tolae Kaliseng, 49, while he was in his house in Raman district. Tolae was critically wounded. Police said Muslim insurgents may be behind the attack but they did not rule out personal conflicts as the cause of the shootings. Meanwhile, in Narathiwat province's Sungai Padi district, a roadside bomb exploded as security officials were investigating a street where spikes had been laid out. No one was hurt in the blast. Police suspect Muslim militants to be behind the ambush. Late on Saturday night in the same province, another bomb went off, detonated by a mobile phone. The blast struck two pickup trucks carrying 20 policemen. Two officers were injured in the explosion. The bombing was followed by an exchange of gunfire that lasted five minutes between police and suspected Muslim attackers near a mosque. A 70-year-old Muslim woman was killed by the gunfire as she left the mosque, and another Muslim woman was wounded before the attackers fled the scene. Security has been beefed up in the three southernmost provinces as schools prepare to reopen on Wednesday. Narathiwat Governor Pracha Therat said new security measures involve the local community to serve as their eyes. The tightened security aims to ensure safety for teachers and students. More than 1,700 people have been killed since the latest wave of violence erupted in the southern provinces in January 2004. Police, soldiers and other state officials are often the targets of the attacks.
The Nation Yala
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