|
Man beaheaded in Thailand
13/06/2007 13:01 - (SA)
Narathiwat - Suspected Islamic militants beheaded a man after gunning down his two travel companions in southern Thailand, while three more died in other attacks, police said on Wednesday.
A headless male body was found inside a fertiliser bag near a bridge late on Tuesday in Narathiwat, one of three provinces roiled by separatist unrest, police said.
Authorities found his head, pierced by two bullet wounds, early on Wednesday in a bag about 300m away.
The man's wife identified him as Surachai Narumalnalini, 36, who had travelled from the regional commercial centre of Hat Yai to sell plastic ware.
Two other people with him were killed when militants ambushed their truck on Tuesday, police said. Only Surachai was abducted and then decapitated.
Meanwhile, a 35-year-old Muslim man was gunned down in a separate drive-by late on Tuesday in Narathiwat, while a 23-year-old soldier was killed on Wednesday when a bomb exploded in front of a school in nearby Pattani province.
One soldier was killed and seven others injured by a second roadside bomb in Pattani, police said.
More than 2 200 people have been killed and thousands more wounded in separatist violence that erupted in the Muslim-majority south in January 2004.
The violence has escalated despite peace-building measures by the military-installed government which came to power following a coup in September 2006.
The provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani were once an autonomous sultanate, until the region was annexed by mainly Buddhist Thailand a century ago. Separatist unrest has erupted there periodically ever since.
|
News
