BANGKOK:  , Five people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in two attacks in Thailand’s troubled south, police said on Sunday ( Mar 9 ).
A low-level issue has simmered in Thailand’s southern provinces since 2004, killing more than 7, 000 individuals, as rebels in the Muslim-majority place struggle for greater freedom.
A group of more than 10 intruders opened fire outside the city office of Sungai Kolok, a village on the Malaysia-Thailand borders, at around 7pm on Saturday (8pm, Singapore time ), municipal police said.
They even threw bombs and detonated explosives in an attack that killed two military participants guarding the company and wounded 12 people, including four civilians, Narathiwat state police said.
In a separate strike in the neighbouring state of Pattani on Saturday evening, a roadside bomb killed three persons, including two native village assistants and a warrior guarding the place.
One person was also wounded in the incident, which occurred at around 11pm ( Sunday, 12 am, Singapore time ) in Saiburi district, local police said.
Thailand’s deep south is culturally distinct from the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which took control of the region more than a century ago. The area is heavily policed by Thai security forces.
Thai Prime Minister Paethongtarn Shinawatra told reporters on Sunday that the number of security forces in the south working night shifts “would definitely need to increase” in the wake of the attacks.