Two women shot dead in deep South

UNKNOWN gunmen yesterday shot dead two female rubber tappers in Yala, a province in Thailand’s unrest-plagued southernmost region.
The victims, identified as hailing from a hilltribe from Chiang Mai province, had sustained gunshot wounds both to their heads and their bodies.
Police have found traces of a motorcycle falling down at the scene and thus believed the victims might have been riding the vehicle when they were suddenly attacked.
“Their attackers might have stolen their motorcycle because no vehicle was found at the scene,” a police officer said.
Earlier in the day, a bomb also exploded in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district slightly wounding a man and his three children.
Police believe the blast was staged to lure security officials to the scene, where a second bomb was defused after security officials noticed a suspicious box.
“The box contained about 10 kilograms of explosives,” a police officer said. “We found the box about 60 metres from where the other bomb went off.”
The first bomb exploded as Mu-areeran Layornghor and his three young children – two boys and a girl – were returning to their house after exercising at a beach. Their motorbike was damaged.
The bomb was stuffed inside a modified cooking-gas cylinder.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a military chief based in Narathiwat said the incident was likely related to insurgents commemorating the Dusun Nyor rebellion.
The rebellion took place on April 25, 1948, and caused 30 deaths, according to this source.
Colonel Pramote Phrom-in, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4’s forward command, condemned the bomb attack.
“It’s inhumane. The attack was done even to children,” he said.
He said such an incident would hurt efforts to promote peace in the deep South.
The ongoing unrest has been plaguing Thailand’s southernmost region for well over a decade already.
In Pattani, a bomb exploded on a road in Ma-Yor district yesterday morning when a security protection team reached the spot.
Fortunately, the team was in an armoured vehicle and no casualties were reported.
In Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district, security officials found a banner reading “Four deaths will not be ignored” at the entrance to a village and quickly removed it.
The message on the banner likely refers to an operation by security officials that caused the death of four young men in the district on March 25.
While these men were initially labelled suspected insurgents, a fact-finding committee’s report revealed that they were not connected to the ongoing insurgency.