Soldiers badly hurt in Narathiwat bombing
Police and Army officers examine the scene where a bomb wounded two soldiers outside a local religious school in Narathiwat’s Joh I Rong district yesterday.
|
|
|
Bombings, shootings and arson attacks continued to rock the strife-torn Muslim-majority South yesterday, causing injuries to four persons, including two soldiers.
At 11.30am in Joh I Rong district of Narathiwat, a bomb went off in front of a local religious school Islammiyah. The bomb impact seriously injured two soldiers - Private Sanya Daoruang, 21, and Private Sakoldej Hemtaj. Earlier, at 8.45am in Chanae district of the same province, a roadside 5-kilogram bomb was detonated as a pickup truck carrying officials passed by. No one was injured. Officials were in the area because they received a report of a suspicious item placed in front of Chanae School. After finding it was a hoax, officials were returning to their base. Police believed the suspected bomb was a decoy to lure the officials out. Meanwhile, the Ban Kayaeng School in Waeng district of Narathiwat was set on fire at around 3am yesterday, damaging a classroom and an activity room. Several teaching kits were also destroyed in the fire. In Yala's Muang district, an explosive device hidden under a pickup truck of a Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SPBAC) staff member exploded but no one was injured. The truck belonged to Provincial Electricity Authority staff member Boontham Buppachart, but is normally driven by his daughter Thippawal Buppachart, said police. The bomb went off while the car was parked outside a house. The bomb wrecked the car and part of the house. Separately, also in Muang district of Yala, scrap dealer Pradit Kaewchanthong, 43, was critically injured from a drive-by shooting while working in his shop. Police said four gunmen, apparently teenagers, rode two motorbikes to Pradit's shop and opened fire before speeding away. Pradit is currently in an intensive care unit at a local hospital. In Kabang district in the same province, rubber-tapper Prasit Boonsanong, 53, was seriously injured from a drive-by shooting while standing outside his home. Police believed suspected Muslim insurgents were behind all the attacks. Close to 2,000 people have been killed since the violence re-emerged in the deep South in January 2004.
|
