Separatist bomb attack at Thai school kills three
Separatist bomb attack at Thai school kills three
BANGKOK (AFP): Three teenagers were killed and 12 injured after a bomb attack by separatists at a school fair in the southern Thai province of Yala, police said yesterday, sparking fears of worsening security in the region.
The explosive, planted in a garbage bin, detonated at 7:00 p.m. (7 p.m. Jakarta time) Monday, ripping through the crowds at a fund-raising fair at the Betong Weera Ratprasarn School in Betong district.
A 15-year-old boy and a girl died Monday night and an 18-year- old died at a hospital yesterday, police said.
It was the latest and most serious in a recent spate of terrorist attacks in the southern provinces close to the border with Malaysia, which is the heartland of Thailand's Moslem minority.
The small separatist Pattani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) claimed responsibility for the blast in two letters found by police at the school.
Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart said police had arrested two suspects in connection with the bombing, but they had not been charged.
He said he would contact Malaysian authorities to help capture the elusive PULO leader Hayee Da-Oh Thanam -- believed to be based across the border in Malaysia.
Police suspected the school bombing could be a revenge attack after the arrest Monday of four Moslem men associated with the PULO.
The four men are suspected of involvement in several earlier attacks in Yala province on government properties, including a grenade attack on a police box last week.
During the weekend, Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart called for security in the southern Thai provinces to be put under military control to combat the terrorist threat.
He wanted terrorist suppression operations to be taken out of the hands of the current security administration, following a wave of relatively minor bombing and shooting attacks mainly targeted at security forces.
Armed forces supreme commander Mongkhol Ampornpisit said Monday the army would be ready to take charge of security in the region, press reports said.
Separatist rebels in the region have been fighting for decades for greater independence, undertaking occasional guerrilla-style raids.
There has been dispute over who has been responsible for the latest attacks, which have been attributed by senior officials on criminals involved in the narcotics trade.