PHOTOS: The Nation | Thai PBS

Disguising themselves as army troops, suspected militants surprised a unit of defence volunteers this morning when they opened fire on them at a school in Yarang district, Pattani. They killed four volunteers and taking away their assault rifles.

The violent incident occurred in the compound of Ban Pukoh school in Village 5, Tambon Prachan, where four defence volunteers were assigned to provide protection to teachers.

Wearing army fatigues, the gunmen approached the four volunteers who mistook them as troops and then opened fire with their automatic weapons.

The four volunteers were killed at the scene and the assailants grabbed their HK assault rifles, ran toward a waiting pickup truck and escaped.

The shooting incident shocked and caused panic among teachers and students who screamed in horror as they scrambled for cover. The school was later ordered closed and all the students sent home.

In Betong district of neighboring Yala province, security was ordered to be stepped up and defence volunteers assigned to protect communities were told to check all vehicles entering the communities as a precautionary measure.

Security officials suspect that the attack was carried out by militants associated with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, an armed militia which does not take part in the Malaysia-brokered peace negotiation between the government and Mara Patani.

A car bomb was detonated near a Border Patrol Police task force base in Thepa district of Songkhla province on Tuesday, injuring two border patrol policemen and shattering a transformer, causing partial blackout in the district.

Police tracked the wreckage of pickup truck which was used as car bomb to its owner, a retired school teacher, who was murdered and hanged in his house before insurgents stole his pickup for the attack.

SOURCE: Thai PBS

Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page </s> Four civil defence volunteers gunned down at school in Thailand

PATTANI, Thailand: Four Thai civil defence volunteers were gunned down Thursday at a school in the kingdom’s south with students just metres away, as bloodshed greets the 15th year of an insurgency in the Malay-Muslim border zone.

The culturally distinct region that borders Malaysia has seen rebels fight against the rule of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which annexed the area over a hundred years ago.

Since 2004, armed insurgents have clashed with Thailand’s powerful military, killing nearly 7,000 people — mostly civilians — both Muslims and Buddhists.

The death toll dropped to a record low last year as Thailand’s junta tightened its security web in the south.

But recent weeks have seen an uptick in violence, as rebels show they remain able to carry out operations after 15 years of conflict.

The men killed on Thursday were all Muslim and were guarding a school in Yarang district of Pattani province when the gunmen struck.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw uniformed bodies on a blood-splattered floor in the school compound.

“They were shot dead at the scene,” Lieutenant Wicha Nupannoi, of Yarang police station told AFP, adding the killers were suspected insurgents.

“The assailants seized their four rifles,” he said, adding there were no eyewitnesses to the attack, which took place before lunch.

Civil defence “volunteers” are poorly paid local civilians — both Muslim and Buddhist — who are lightly-trained, armed and paid by the Thai state to supplement security forces who have blanketed the southernmost provinces throughout the rebellion.

The 15-year insurgency has seen scores of teachers killed, slain for their perceived collaboration with the Thai state, and led to the deployment of armed guards at schools.

In a rare public statement dated January 4 the main rebel group — the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) — which has command and control over most of the rebel foot soldiers, swore to “keep fighting”.

“Siam (Thailand) can’t hold out,” the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: “Do not help and support Siam.”

Prolonged peace talks between the Thai government and an umbrella group which claims to represent the rebels have failed to yield peace.

But Thai authorities as well as the Malaysian facilitator of the talks have recently expressed confidence they will reach a detente soon. </s> Hat Yai, Thailand (AP) — Gunmen disguised as state security personnel fatally shot four paramilitary volunteers guarding a school in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand, police said.

 The attackers approached the armed territorial defense volunteers at the school in Pattani province and shot them dead shortly before noon Thursday, police Lt. Col. Wicha Nupannoi said. They seized four HK33 assault rifles from their victims before fleeing, scattering nails and other material on the road to delay pursuers, he said.

On Tuesday, a bomb outside a school and a car bomb elsewhere exploded in nearby Songkhla province, wounding a 12-year-old student, a security guard for teachers and a police medic. A flurry of similar attacks took place in the last week of December. Several targeted Songkhla, which previously had been largely spared the violence.

“The insurgents consider school officials to be symbolic of the Thai Buddhist state’s occupation of Malay Muslim territory,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “They have frequently targeted security personnel assigned to provide students and teachers safe passage to and from school, or protecting the school grounds.”

The attacks have occurred during an effort to revitalize peace talks between the Thai government and some insurgent groups. Analysts say the most militant group, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, is not taking part.

Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan blamed the BRN for Tuesday’s bombings. He said the authorities would have to step up efforts to prevent the attacks.

Human Rights Watch also pinned the blame for the region’s ongoing violence on the BRN.

 The insurgents “attack schools and medical clinics to maim and terrify Buddhist civilians, control the Muslim population, and discredit Thai authorities,” Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, said in the statement. “Whatever the rationale, targeting civilians is morally indefensible and a war crime.” </s> Suspected insurgents mounted 13 simultaneous attacks in three of Thailand’s southernmost provinces late Wednesday, and two of them were accidentally killed in a bomb explosion, officials said.

At least 10 attacks involved bombs or grenades, while the others were shootings, according to official information.

There were 13 attacks in all – seven in Narathiwat, three in Pattani and three in Songkhla – officials in those provinces of the Thai Deep South told BenarNews.

The two suspects were killed in a blast in Saba Yoi, a district in Songkhla province. Elsewhere, a security volunteer was shot and injured as he guarded a railway station in Sungai Padi, a district of Narathiwat, officials said.

“As far as we learnt from a Saba Yoi district official, the two dead tried to plant a bomb and it went off, killing them,” an official with the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), told BenarNews on condition of anonymity.

The string of bombings and shootings were the first attacks in Thailand’s predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South since 23 coordinated bomb blasts and arson attacks by suspected insurgents rocked the region on April 7, taking out utility poles and causing power and internet blackouts.

Since the start of the year, 30 people have been killed and 38 others injured in violence blamed on insurgents in the Deep South.

During that time, Thailand’s military government has been negotiating with MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing rebel groups, to end a decades-old separatist conflict that has claimed nearly 7,000 lives since it reignited in 2004.

Wednesday’s attacks were aimed mostly at security positions such as police stations and village defense volunteer bases, Lt. Gen. Wiwat Nakwanich, commander of the 4th Army regional command, told the TNN television news channel.

“We were tipped-off by local residents that insurgents would launch attacks … people dislike violence so they alerted us,” Wiwat said.

Copyright ©2017, BenarNews. Used with the permission of BenarNews. </s> HAT YAI, Thailand — Suspected Muslim insurgents set off dozens of bombs in southern Thailand, bringing down power lines and setting tires on fire to block roads. Security officials said there were no reports of deaths or injuries.

Most of the attacks occurred early Friday in Muslim-majority provinces in Buddhist-dominated Thailand's deep south, where about 7,000 people have been killed in a separatist insurgency that flared in 2004. Thai media speculated the actions were in response to Thursday's ratification of Thailand's new constitution, but officials said they had no information connecting the events.

Military spokesman Pramote Prom-in said 52 electric poles were damaged by explosives in the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Songkhla, causing scattered minor blackouts. He said officials also discovered burnt tires and more explosives but reported no injuries or deaths.

On Monday, men with grenade launchers and other heavy weapons attacked a police checkpoint in Yala, injuring six officers. Three other attacks last week killed an army ranger and a policeman.

Don Pathan, a security analyst specializing in southern Thailand, said he believed Friday's incidents were not related to the new constitution but were meant to discredit the security apparatus in response to a police shooting last week that killed two people whom friends said were unarmed. Police have said the two men in a pickup truck tried to escape a police checkpoint and began shooting at officers, who returned fire. They also said the two men were responsible for an attack in early March that killed an 8-year-old boy and three relatives. </s> Gunmen in Thailand’s deep south shot dead two Buddhist monks and wounded two others inside a temple, police said on Saturday, capping a week of deadly violence as the prime minister vowed to “punish” those responsible.

Black-clad assailants carrying rifles crept into Rattanaupap temple in Narathiwat province near Malaysia’s border on Friday evening and started firing, said local superintendent Pakdi Preechachon.

“The attack took place around 7:30pm when an unknown number of gunmen dressed in black entered the temple through a rear area via a creek,” Pakdi said. “Two monks were shot dead at the temple while two others were wounded.”

Since 2004 clashes between ethnic Malay-Muslim rebels and the Buddhist-majority Thai state that annexed the region a century ago have killed nearly 7,000 people, mostly civilians of both faiths.

The death toll in the south dropped to a record low last year as Thailand’s junta tightened its security web but violence has boiled over in recent days, raising concerns about soft targets at schools and religious institutions.

In the past, Buddhist monks were not normally targeted.

But they have been told to suspend morning alms collection starting from Saturday in three southern provinces and the southern army commander has instructed security officials to step up safeguards of Islamic leaders who could also be at risk.

“The prime minister denounced such a brazen attack and instructed officials to investigate and find the assailants to punish them,” said government spokesman Buddhipongse Punnakanta.

Human Rights Watch, which said in a statement that at least 23 monks had been killed since the outbreak of the insurgency in 2004, called the assault “ghastly” and a war crime because gunmen went after civilians and a place of worship.

Pictures show monks standing next to heavily armed Thai soldiers and an alms bowl inside the temple compound with bullet holes in it.

Last week, an imam in the same province was shot dead but it was unclear whether the temple attack was related.

Friday’s shooting came on the same day four security officials were wounded by two separate roadside bombs and an insurgent was shot dead in a clash near a school that sent students home for the day.

Four civil defence volunteers were also killed in a drive-by shooting outside a school on January 10 in the south’s Pattani province, with security forces injuring a boy as they gunned down rebels believed to be responsible.

In a rare public statement dated January 4 the main Malay-Muslim rebel group – the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) – which has command and control over most of the insurgent foot soldiers, swore to “keep fighting”.

“Siam (Thailand) can’t hold out,” the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: “Do not help and support Siam.”

Security analyst Don Pathan said the uptick in violence was connected to efforts from Thai negotiators and Malaysian facilitators across the border to “pressure the BRN ruling council to come to the table without offering possible concessions”. </s> BANGKOK (Reuters) - A string of gun and grenade attacks in southern Thailand that killed two people reflects tension over talks aimed at ending violence there, a conflict monitoring group said on Thursday, warning against similar attacks in future.

Military personnel and local residents stand next to a site of an attack at Yaring district, in the troubled southern province of Pattani, Thailand, April 7, 2017. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

Thailand’s far south has battled a separatist insurgency since 2004, when resistance to Buddhist rule in the Muslim-majority region flared. More than 6,500 people, most of them civilians, have died in separatist violence since.

Eight people were wounded in 13 incidents on Wednesday across the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Songkhla, near Thailand’s border with Malaysia. No group has yet claimed responsibility.

The attacks follow the Thai government’s rejection of a conditional offer for peace talks made this month by one of the main insurgent groups, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN).

The violence was the BRN’s way of showing it is capable of coordinated strikes as a way to push for peace talks, said Srisompob Jitpiromsri, head of independent monitoring group Deep South Watch.

“This reflects attempts to create conditions for peace talks in the future,” Srisompob, whose group tracks violent incidents in the region, told Reuters.

“The group is expected to carry out similar attacks periodically, which will likely affect peace dialogues in the long run.”

A Thai security official blamed the attacks, which targeted security forces and civilians on “people who want to cause chaos”, but did not single out the BRN.

“It looks like their intention wasn’t to kill, but rather to cause disorder,” Colonel Yutthanam Petchmuang, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command, told Reuters.

The violence followed coordinated attacks in the region on April 7, just hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed into law a new constitution, as a step toward ending military rule.

The new constitution, which critics say will entrench military rule in Thailand, was widely opposed in the south.

“The BRN is showing that it is the right negotiating partner, which can control and command the fighters on the ground,” Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, an independent researcher who monitors the conflict, told Reuters.

Talks between the government and a handful of shadowy insurgent groups began in 2013, under the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, overthrown in 2014 by the military in the name of ending political turmoil.

In February, the government said it had reached a breakthrough pact with MARA Patani, an umbrella group that says it speaks for insurgent groups in the south. Analysts say only a handful of BRN members belong to the group, however.

The provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala formed part of an independent Malay Muslim sultanate before being annexed by Thailand in 1909. </s> PATTANI — Two paramilitary rangers died in the southern border provinces Thursday night in a string of attacks that included bombs, shootings and an assault on the power grid.

The wave of violence came just hours after His Majesty the King enacted Thailand’s latest constitution opposed by separatist groups in the Deep South. </s> SRINAGAR: While a police statement said that three militants were killed in a gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district, it was confirmed later that one of the victims was a civilian.

The police said in a statement on Thursday that three militants were killed in the gunfight that took place earlier in the day in Handew village.

While two victims were identified as Yawar Mushtaq and Shakeel Ahmed, both Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) militants from Shopian, the third was identified as a civilian, Ishtiyaq Ahmed Bhat.

A soldier, Rohit Kumar Yadav who was injured in the gunfight, succumbed to his wounds on Thursday night in the Army's 92 base hospital in Srinagar, the police said.

In Thursday's two gunfights in Pulwama and Shopian districts killed a total of five militants, two civilians and two soldiers.

Three Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants, including a top commander identified as a Pakistan national Khalid Bhai, a civilian and a soldier were killed in a gunfight in Dalipora village of Pulwama.

Police said Khalid Bhai had masterminded the 2017 attack on the Lethpora CRPF camp in Pulwama district in which five troopers were killed.

In a third shootout between the security forces and militants in Kupwara's Kandi forests on Thursday, there were no reports of any casualty.
Four civil defense volunteers were shot dead by suspected militants in a school in Pattani's Yarang District. Police suspect the attack could have been done by Barisan Revolusi Nasional. Two insurgents were later killed by the police.