2 killed in drive-by shootings in Thai south

The Straits Times, March 5, 2007


BANGKOK - Suspected Muslim insurgents shot dead two men and wounded four others in a flurry of drive-by shootings in Thailand's restive south on Monday.

A Muslim man was shot dead and his wife injured while riding a motorcycle back from work at a rubber plantation in the Raman district of Yala province, police Lieutenant Songkran Kankranond said.

Nearby, another Muslim couple who worked at a rubber plantation was shot and severely injured, said Lieutenant Songkran.

'We believe that the two incidents may have been perpetrated by the same people to cause fear and further unrest,' he said, blaming the attacks on insurgents.

Drive-by shootings and bombings occur almost daily in Thailand's three Muslim-majority provinces - Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani - where more than 2,000 lives have been claimed since violence flared in 2004. Muslims as well as Buddhists are targeted.

In Narathiwat's Kok Pho district, a 70-year-old Buddhist rubber plantation worker was shot and killed by drive-by gunmen, while another man was injured in the attack, police said.

Violence in Thailand's restive south has escalated in recent months despite a major policy shift by the military-installed government, which has taken a conciliatory approach to ending the violence. -- AP