Religion of Peace Strikes Again in Thailand
Charles Johnson
Mon Dec 4, 2006 at 10:17 am PST • Views: 275
Five more dead as some schools reopen in Thai south.
YALA, Thailand (AFP) - Five people have been killed by suspected Islamic separatists in Thailand’s deep south, as some schools reopened for the first time in a week after a wave of arson and bombings.
A 32-year-old Muslim man and his three-year-old daughter were killed after a shooting in Yala province, apparently because insurgents believed he was a government informant, police said Monday. The father died at the scene and the girl died later in hospital.
Two others were killed in neighboring Pattani province — a 51-year-old rubber tapper was shot in a drive-by and a policeman was shot while guarding a branch of the Thai Military Bank, police said.
In Narathiwat province, a 44-year-old Muslim woman was also killed in a drive-by shooting as she left a morning market, police added.
The killings came as authorities reopened some schools in the volatile region along the southern border with Malaysia for the first time in a week.
“We don’t have exact figures on how many schools reopened today, but most schools in seven districts of Pattani are open,” Boonsom Thongsriplai, chairman of the regional teachers’ federation, said.
Nearly 1,000 schools in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala were closed all last week after a wave of attacks in which militants torched and bombed school buildings and killed teachers across the region.
Frank says: