Terror campaign against Thai Buddhists
Thai Buddhists appear to be the target of the latest bomb attacks by suspected militants in the three southernmost provinces.
On Monday October 25 which marked the 6th anniversary of the Tak Bai tragic incident, 17 bomb explosions took place in 12 districts of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, causing injuries to two officials and 14 civilians, 13 of them Buddhists. In addition, nine bombs were found and defused.
Most of the bomb incidents occurred in Narathiwat, the scene of the infamous Tak Bai tragedy six years ago when 78 Muslim men died of suffocation after they were forced to lie face down on top of one another aboard military trucks as they were transported from the protest site in Tak Bai district to the Ingkayuth military barrack in Pattani province. Seven others were shot dead at the protest site.
Interestingly, all the explosions and the unexploded bombs which were eventually defused were in rubber plantations owned by Thai Buddhists.
On Tuesday October 26, a rubber tapper lost his right leg when he stepped on a bomb, believed to be a home-made landmine, in a rubber plantation in Rueso district of Narathiwat. A cow also lost a leg in another village in the same district on the same day.
On the following day, another cow lost one of its legs when it stepped on a landmine in a rubber plantation in Raman district of Yala.
It was not known how many of this type of landmines – the first to be used by militants in the region – had been planted in rubber plantations. Security authorities suspected that they were planted before October 25 although they were meant to mark the Tak Bai incident.
Apart from the injured villagers and officials, one suspected militant was believed to have set off a landmine blasting off one of his legs which was left in a rubber plantation in Ja-nae district of Narathiwat.
Security officials suspected that the the bombing incidents which were scattering in 12 districts of three provinces suggested that the militants wanted to show off their capability to stage terror campaign undeterred by security forces although it was much easier to plant bombs in rubber plantations which were usually not policed.
However, they suspected that the primary objective of this latest terror campaign targeting rubber plantations was to force the Thai Buddhists to evacuate out of the three Muslim-predominated provinces so they could take over the plantations and reap their profitable yields.
From May until July this year, there were five similar bomb attacks in rubber plantations owned by Thai Buddhists in Tharnto district of Yala. Three people were killed and three others lost one of their legs each. And on September 18, four people who represented the last Thai Buddhist family in Ban Hutae Yuelo in Ba Cho district of Narathiwat were slaughtered by suspected militants.
The bomb incidents on October 25 appear to have shattered a new policy launched by Lt-Gen Udomchai Thammasarorath, commander of the Fourth Army Region, to create an atmosphere of safety in the region, said security officials.
In response to the recent wave of bomb attacks, Yala governor Mr Krisda Boonrach summoned an urgent of security officials concerned to step up security for communities of Thai Buddhists in the province.
According to the Isra news reporters, there are altogether 64 Thai Buddhist communities in the three provinces which are deemed vulnerable to terror campaign by the militants.
A breakdown of the communities is as follows:
- Pattani. There are Thai Buddhist communities in 25 villages: one village in Muang district; five in Nong Chid district; three in Mayo district; three in Kok Pho district; two in Mae Larn district; one in Panareh district; two in Yarung district; two in Sai Buri district; one in Thung Yang Daeng district; three in Mai Kaen district and one in Kapor district.
- Yala. There are Thai Buddhist communities in 15 villages: three in Muang district; one in Raman district; three in Krong Penang district; one in Banang Sata district; and six in Tharn To district.
- Narathiwat. There are Thai Buddhist communities in 24 villages: one in Muang district; three in Tak Bai; three in Cho-I-Rong district; four in Ra-nage district; three in Janeh district; five in Waeng district; two in Su-ngai Padi and three in Sukhirin district.