Friday, October 29, 2004
Two bombs explode in southern Thailand, 20 hurt
Associated Press Pattani, Thailand, October 29
Two bombs exploded on Friday near a tea shop and wounded 20 people in southern Thailand, police said, as violence continued unabated in the Muslim-majority region where residents are seething over the deaths of 78 men while in military custody.
Friday's attacks appeared to have targeted the police, accused by some in the south of corruption, criminal activities and discrimination against Muslims. Many of the wounded were policemen, officials and reporters at the scene said.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra planned to explain the situation in the south in a televised address on Friday. His government was under severe criticism for its handling of the growing violence, with some fearing that predominantly Buddhist Thailand has a full-blown Islamic insurgency in the making.
The 78 Muslim detainees suffocated or were crushed to death on Monday when security forces jammed them into military trucks - along with more than 1,200 others - after a protest turned violent in the southern province of Narathiwat. At least nine others died during the riot, some of them apparently shot by security forces. The first explosion on Friday took place as morning customers crowded tea shops. It was planted at the foot of tree in the provincial capital of Yala, 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) south of Bangkok.
Maj. Gen. Parinya Khwanyuen, Yala's police chief, said eight persons, including three police officers, were injured by the time-bomb. About 40 minutes later, while a bomb squad was clearing the cordoned-off area, a second explosion injured 12 policemen, four of them critically, Parinya said. The police chief said it was unclear whether the second bomb was triggered by a timer or a mobile telephone signal.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.