Four bombs laid by suspected Muslim insurgents wounded 12 people in Thailand’s deep south yesterday, in what one analyst said could be an attempt to draw the attention of the incoming administration of Thai prime minister-designate Yingluck Shinawatra to the problems of the region.
Police said three booby traps went off in quick succession at a rubber plantation in Yala Province, the first blowing off the leg of a rubber tapper and the other two wounding security and bomb disposal officers sent to the scene.
They said the last bomb planted in a parked rubber plantation truck in another district of the same province destroyed the vehicle without causing any injury.
“This could be an attempt to draw the attention of the new government to problems in the south, especially to the longstanding -Muslim demand for autonomy,” political science lecturer Srisompob Jitpiromsri of Srinakharin University in nearby Pattani Province said.
“Violent incidents tend to rise when there is a change of government. I would not be surprised if these incidents rise in the next month above the monthly average of 70-80 seen in the first half of this year,” he said.
Even before the election, there was a spike in the number and scale of attacks in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, with Muslim villagers, soldiers and police among the victims of roadside blasts and ambushes.
Ethnic Malay Muslims represent the majority of the population in the southernmost provinces of predominantly Buddhist Thailand. About 4,600 people have been killed and nearly 9,000 wounded in violence since 2004.
Srisompob said Muslims wanted to see if Yingluck would fulfill her campaign pledge to create a special administrative zone in the region, annexed by Thailand about a century ago.
“The Muslims should respond well to any peace talk initiative or a move to create a special administrative zone, although I don’t expect that to take place for at least five to six months while Yingluck’s government deals with more immediate political problems in Bangkok,” he said.
Yingluck’s Puea Thai Party scored a landslide victory in the July 3 general election, winning 265 of 500 lower-house seats, but its candidates failed to secure any of the 11 seats available in the three restive provinces.
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