(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Four Muslims were shot dead in three separate attacks in Thailand’s rebellious deep south recently, police said, the latest killings in a region plagued by seven years of separatist violence.A former Islamic school teacher was shot dead in his home before dawn in Pattani, and about two hours later in the same province, a man and his wife were gunned down as they rode on a motorcycle.In neighboring Yala, the body of another Muslim man was found by the side of the road with two gunshot wounds to his head, police said.Muslims form the majority of the population in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces bordering Malaysia. Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country.More than 4,600 people have been killed and 9,000 wounded since a decades-old rebellion against the Thai state resurfaced in 2004. No credible group has claimed responsibility for the near-daily gun and bomb attacks in the rubber producing region, where more than 40,000 police and troops are deployed.Police suspected the killings may have been retribution for that of a Buddhist school teacher who was shot while riding a motorcycle in Pattani Wednesday.More than 140 teachers have been killed in the region since 2004. Experts say they are targeted by militants because they symbolize the Thai state’s influence in an ethnic Malay Muslim region that was independent until a century ago.The authorities typically blame shadowy insurgents for most of the attacks, including those against Muslims. However, local Muslims blame many of the killings on Buddhist vigilantes or rogue police and soldiers.The three provinces, and a small part of neighboring Songkhla, were part of a sultanate annexed by Thailand in 1909. Separatist tensions have simmered ever since./129
source : iina
Saturday
6 August 2011
7:30:00 PM
258085
Four Muslims were shot dead in three separate attacks in Thailand’s rebellious deep south recently, police said, the latest killings in a region plagued by seven years of separatist violence.