Deadly explosions hit Yala, kill 3, injure 20
Three people have been killed and about 20 injured, three of whom in critical condition, from a series of bomb blasts that rocked the city of Yala Tuesday evening on the seventh anniversary of the Tak Bai massacre.
Two of the dead were suspected insurgents, both residents of Pattani's Yarang district, who died from a blast that went off prematurely. The two were transporting the bomb through the Old Market section of Yala's Muang district and appeared to be heading towards the commercial centre of the city.
An eyewitness said the blast had severed the limbs of the two suspects, ripping through their torsos.
There were also eight more blasts, with the last one going off around 10PM in the New Market area of the city.
Authorities were able to defused ten bombs all together. It was not sure how many more were left as authorities were searching the city for more device that has yet to be detonated.
Most of the targets were restaurants and karaoke bars in predominantly Buddhist section of the city.
The city was blackout but authorities were able to restore power within an hour.
The Yala blasts came about 24 hours after culprits set off two bomb blasts followed by a shooting attack in Narathiwat's Muang district.
The first bomb exploded inside a convenience store in Narathiwat municipality around 7pm, killing three people, including a pregnant woman and her three-year-old son, who were burnt to death from the fire set off by the explosion.
The second bomb went off about hour an hour later outside a two-story shop house, about 400 away from the site of the first attack. The blasts set off fire that severely damage the shophouses in which the stores were located.
Two people, including the store owner and a local teacher, died from the blaze at the second location. A total of seven people, five of whom were local Muslim residents, were injured from this blast.
A senior government officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said authorities believe the attacks in Yala and Narathiwat were carried out to mark the anniversary of the Tak Bai.
Of the 86 who died from the Tak Bai incident, 78 suffocate to death after the had been placed on top of each other on the back of military trucks after security officials had detained for demonstrating in front of the Tak Bai police station on Oct 25, 2004.
The incident drove a big wedge between the Thai state and the southernmost provinces where about 90 per cent of local residents are Muslims and radicalised an entire generation of Malay Muslim insurgents bent on carving out a separate homeland for the local Malay population who constituted about 90 per cent of the local population.
