Suspected Muslim insurgents exploded at least 46 bombs in
attacks Thursday on government offices and other targets across
Thailand's restive south, killing at least two people, as the
deputy prime minister visited the region, officials said.
Two people were killed by the blasts in three provinces, and
another 24 wounded, said police spokesman Colonel Pattanawut
Angkanawin.
The bombings in the three southern Muslim-majority provinces of
Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, most of which took place as people
headed to work between 8:30 AM and 9 AM (01:30 GMT and 02:00 GMT),
represented the most extensively co-ordinated attacks in many
months by the suspected Islamic separatists, whose activity surged
in January 2004.
One of the bombs went off at a government office in Yala minutes
before Deputy Prime Minister Chitchai Wannasathit was due for a
visit in the area. Chitchai is in charge of overseeing security in
Thailand's south.
More than 1,300 people have been killed in sectarian fighting in
the past two-and-a-half years. Government efforts to contain the
violence, mainly by pouring security forces into the area, have
failed to make much headway.
The attacks came just two days after Thailand finished
celebrating the 60th anniversary on the throne of King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, and was a sharp reminder of the problems down south
after a period of relative calm.
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said intelligence information
had indicated the insurgents were planning a "major operation" for
Thursday but that the government's security operation was "not good
enough" to block the attacks.
Thai intelligence officials have said that June 15 was the date
chosen by a 1997 meeting of insurgents to represent the "national
day" of an independent Pattani sultanate. The area was annexed in
the early 20th century, and a violent separatist movement has waxed
and waned since then.
(China Daily June 16, 2006)
