Bomb blast in troubled southern Thailand kills at least 3
Bangkok, Dec 6 (EFE).- A bomb blast in Thailand’s south killed at least three people on Tuesday, further deepening bloodshed in the volatile region riven by a Muslim separatist conflict, police said.
Chatchai Chanasith, a police officer in Songkhla province, told EFE that the investigators were still looking for the culprits behind the attack.
The explosion occurred near the same place where a bomb blast on Saturday wounded several people and derailed a freight train carrying rubber to Malaysia.
The Bangkok Post newspaper said the dead in the latest attack were three workers of the state railway company who were cleaning up the debris from Saturday’s blast, which damaged 20 train carriages.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which is not uncommon.
Violence in the region has increased in recent weeks.
A series of 11 bomb explosions shook the region on Aug.17 in coordinated attacks that injured six people mildly.
According to the authorities, the explosions occurred at many 24-hour convenience stores and gas stations in the Pattani, Narathiwat, and Yala provinces, home to several radical Muslim insurgent groups.
A car bombing killed one and injured 32 at a police housing complex in Narathiwat province.
On Nov.16, one person was injured when several bombs exploded at two gas stations in Pattani province.
Small weapons attacks, assassinations, and bomb blasts are common in the Thai regions.
Since 2004, suspected Muslim separatist attacks and shootings in southern Thailand have killed over 7,000 people and injured 20,000 more.
The Muslim insurgents claimed that the country’s Buddhist majority discriminated against them.
They have been seeking increased autonomy or independence for the three southern provinces that used to be part of the Patani Sultanate before Thailand seized it in the early 20th century.
Several rounds of talks have taken place in Malaysia during the last decade between the government and the militants. EFE
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