Thai Muslims protest shooting

An unidentified Muslim man looks on during funeral services for Suchit Rattrawoon, 14, yesterday in Pattani, Thailand. The Muslim-dominated region has been plagued by a violent insurgency that has lasted more than three years and claimed more than 2,000 lives. PHOTO: AP

Hundreds of Muslims blocked a main road in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand yesterday to protest the killing of three youths in a shootout with soldiers, officials said.

Troops shot dead three Muslim boys, ranging in age from 13 to 15, and wounded two others on Friday night in a clash in Pattani province, police Colonel Somjit Nasomyon said.

A unit of 12 soldiers had been dispatched to a village in Muang district on Friday to investigate reports that four mobile phone transmission towers had been set on fire, Somjit said.

When the soldiers reached the scene, gunshots were fired from where a group of youths was standing, army Colonel Wanchai Paungkhumsa, the local military commander, said. He said the soldiers fired back in self-defense.

"They could not just sit idly in that situation," Wanchai said.

A similar event a week earlier when government-backed village militia opened fire on a pickup truck in nearby Yala province, killing four Muslim youths, also sparked protests.

300 protesters

On Saturday morning, about 300 protesters -- mostly young men -- gathered on a main road near a major mosque in Muang, blocking the main road linking Pattani to neighboring Narathiwat province and forcing motorists to use alternate routes, Somjit said.

"I don't want the situation to escalate and hope that [the protesters] will disperse after they meet the provincial governor later today," Somjit said.

Civilians

Buddhist civilians have also been staging protests, calling for the government to increase security. They are still rallying in Yala around the body of a young Buddhist women who was killed by suspected Muslim insurgents.

In separate violence yesterday, suspected Islamic insurgents shot at a passenger train in Narathiwat province, injuring an engineer and a female passenger, said police Captain Samahae Sanya. The injured were taken to hospital and the train continued on its journey, he said.

An Islamic insurgency that erupted in early 2004 has led to more than 2,000 deaths in the Muslim-majority, southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. Southern Muslims have long complained of discrimination, especially in educational and job opportunities, in Buddhist-dominated Thailand.