Suspected Muslim insurgents kill policeman, torch school in southern Thailand
signonsandiego.com
PATTANI, Thailand – Suspected Muslim separatists ambushed police patrols and torched a school as Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont returned to southern Thailand Saturday for a third attempt at ending the bloody insurgency, officials said.
A police sergeant was in critical condition after he was shot three times at close range while on patrol with three other officers in the busy market of Yala's provincial capital, said police Maj. Suthas Noosikhong.
Advertisement On Friday night, suspected insurgents killed a police sergeant in Pattani province and set fire to a government school in Yala province, totally destroying it.
Surayud, who arrived in southern Thailand Friday night, said he hoped for a peaceful solution to the conflict.
“My government is standing firm on reconciliation and a peaceful solution despite strong rumors and speculation that the situation is not improving,” he told some 1,000 community and religious leaders in Pattani province on Saturday.
On his first visit, Surayud offered an apology to the local Muslims for past government wrongdoing, which was widely praised by moderates in the south. But the insurgency has continued unabated.
More than 1,900 people have been killed since 2004 in Thailand's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, where a Muslim separatist movement re-emerged after more than two decades of relative peace.
Suspected insurgents target people seen as collaborators with the government, including soldiers, police and informants. More than 50 teachers, viewed as symbols of government authority, also have been killed. |
