Author: Correspondents in Bangkok
Publication: NEWS.com.au
Date: July 4, 2003
URL: http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6701419%255E1702,00.html
Five police officers and one civilian
were shot dead and three police were wounded in three separate attacks
by masked gunmen in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, police said
today.
"Five police officers were killed
and one civilian shot dead while three police sustained injuries," Pattani
provincial police commander Major General Panya Thiensart told AFP.
Panya said the attacks on police
posts in Sai Buri, Yaring and Nong Chik districts occurred almost simultaneously
yesterday evening.
The unidentified assailants, who
were wearing masks, took two machine- guns and a pistol from the victims,
he said.
Police have not yet established
a motive for the killings but hostility and violence against authorities
representing the central government in the region are long-standing.
"They just wanted to kill police,
that's all I can say," Panya said.
The civilian was killed at the Sai
Buri police box while talking to officers
there.
Thailand's five Muslim-majority
provinces suffered a spate of violence in 2001 and 2002 during which more
than 20 police officers were killed, trains bombed, government offices
attacked and weapons depots raided.
Provincial leaders and Islamic authorities
at the time blamed criminals fighting over the profits from illegal businesses,
rather than the Muslim separatists who have been active in the south for
decades.
However, the arrests last month
of three Thai Muslims suspected of belonging to the regional terror group
Jemaah Islamiah has thrown a new spotlight on unrest in the region.
The three men - a doctor, an Islamic
teacher and his son - were accused of planning bomb attacks against embassies
in Bangkok and tourist sites during October's APEC Summit when leaders
from 21 nations will gather in the capital.
Agence France-Presse
