Two insurgents believed to be tied to a motorcycle drive-by shooting at a school in Thailand’s south were shot dead yesterday, police said, as UNICEF warned of trauma for children near the scene of the lunchtime violence.
Since 2004, clashes between the Buddhist-majority Thai state, which annexed the area more than 100 years ago, and Malay Muslim rebels have killed nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians of both faiths.
The conflict is a reality for border province residents where security forces maintain a large footprint, aided by poorly paid defence “volunteers” drawn from local communities.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The four men killed in Thursday’s shooting were all Muslims and were guarding a school in Pattani Province when the attackers struck just before lunchtime with students mere meters away.
Pattani provincial police commander Piyawat Chalermsri yesterday told reporters that two people with alleged ties to the school violence were killed in a shootout yesterday morning.
Although he did not give information about their identities or affiliation, he said he was “confident that they are the same group who carried out the attack Thursday” by driving by on motorbikes.
Authorities have also detained one suspect and were questioning five others, while a military source said that an eight-year-old was grazed by a bullet, but not seriously injured.
UNICEF Thailand representative Thomas Davin on Friday said that one child was reportedly injured by debris and some who might have witnessed the attack could face long-term psychological trauma.
“This attack has undoubtedly put the schoolchildren, the teachers and school personnel in harm’s way. It has put children at grave risk of injury or death,” he said. “Such violence could also affect parents’ willingness to send their children to school — potentially to the detriment of many children’s learning and future development.”
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