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School torched in Thailand's strife-torn south
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-05 16:18 PATTANI, Thailand -- Suspected Muslim insurgents burned down a school in Thailand's restive south Wednesday, a day after detonating two bombs that killed one person and left 71 wounded, police said.
Arsonists torched the school in Narathiwat province at about 1 am local time when it was empty, said Lt. Anurak Chathapon. Nobody was injured but the two-story schoolhouse was destroyed. The attack bore the trademark of Muslim insurgents, Anurak said. Public schools and teachers in the southernmost provinces are viewed as symbols of government authority and are regularly attacked. More than 80 Buddhist teachers, and 3,300 people in total, have been killed in southern Thailand since a Muslim insurgency flared in 2004. On Tuesday, two bombs exploded in the same province, killing one person and wounding 71. It was the largest attack in several months. The first blast appeared to target local officials from Narathiwat province who were leaving a monthly meeting when a bomb exploded in the building's parking lot, said police chief Maj. Gen. Surachai Suebsuk. The bomb was hidden inside a parked car and sent debris flying about 200 yards (meters), officials at the scene said. The building also housed an indoor fruit market, which was busy with shoppers when the blast went off at the start of the normally crowded lunch hour, he said. "The insurgents aimed to kill," Surachai said. "Most of the wounded were civilian officials who were leaving the meeting and heading for their cars." Minutes later, a second bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off outside a nearby tea shop, Surachai said. Thailand's three southernmost provinces are the only Muslim-dominated areas in the Buddhist-majority country. Some analysts interpreted the timing of Tuesday's attacks, one week after embattled Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat visited the region, as a message to the government. "It can be seen as a symbolic response that their fight is not over," said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, a political scientist at Prince of Songkhla University in the southern province of Pattani. Visits by senior officials are often followed by violence. The insurgency has been overshadowed in recent months by a political crisis fueled by anti-government protests in the capital, Bangkok. Violence in the south is usually blamed on Muslim insurgents. The southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani have been terrorized by regular attacks since early 2004, when a separatist movement flared after a lull of more than two decades. Attacks generally take the form of drive-by shootings and small-scale bombings intended to frighten Buddhist residents into leaving the area. Suspected insurgents mainly target people seen as collaborating with the government, including soldiers, police, informants and civilians. |
