BANGKOK, 17 May 2004 — Bomb blasts rocked three temples in Thailand’s troubled south yesterday, wounding at least one person in the latest violence to hit the restive region, police said.
The temples, located in three separate districts of Narathiwat province, were hit by bombs within minutes of each other. One temple suffered damage to its roof and pillars.
“Three temples were attacked with explosives,” said Police Maj. Gen. Kathane Kochapalayuk. A bystander was slightly wounded outside one temple.
Authorities declined to speculate on the motive for the attacks, the first major incident in the region since security forces killed 108 militants who attacked police outposts across three southern provinces on April 28.
Many within the predominantly Muslim local community were outraged at what they said was an excessive use of force.
The bloodiest fighting of that day occurred when soldiers and police stormed a historic mosque in the southern town of Pattani and killed 32 militants hiding inside.
Narathiwat escaped the separatist uprising that erupted in its three sister provinces on April 28, but security forces across the region are on high alert for the start of a new school semester today. Hundreds of soldiers are protecting teachers and guarding state schools, often targeted as symbols of central authority.
“We plan to maintain tight security at schools. Each branch of the security forces has been assigned to a specific area,” a Narathiwat district official told a Bangkok radio station.
More than 20 schools were torched and an army camp raided for weapons in Narathiwat in January, triggering four months of violence in which scores of police and government employees have been killed in bombings, drive-by shootings and machete attacks.
The unrest has fuelled fears of a resurgent separatist movement in the deep south, where rebels fought a low-key, anti-Bangkok rebellion in the 1970s and 1980s, and where most of the population are Muslim ethnic Malays.
The violence has tarnished Thailand’s carefully crafted “Land of Smiles” image as a safe tourist destination attracting more than 10 million visitors each year.
