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Seven more killed as violence worsens in Thai south
Seven people have been shot dead thsi week in escalating attacks in Thailand's south, police said as the government stepped back from a controversial scheme to deny funding to Muslim villages seen as supporting insurgents.
The seven were killed since Tuesday in the mainly Buddhist kingdom's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces, where an insurgency blamed on Islamic separatists erupted a year ago.
The latest attacks in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces targeted mainly government workers and police.
Police Sergeant Adul Wansu, 50, was gunned down at a market in Chanae district in Narathiwat Thursday afternoon.
"There were three gunmen," a policeman in Chanae told AFP by telephone. "They actually tried to shoot two police but the gun failed to go off" in the second shooting.
Earlier Thursday police Sergeant Prawit Kasalo was shot dead also by three gunmen in Pattani's Mayo district, while a bullet grazed the forehead of his colleague, police said.
Four people were killed in scattered attacks on Wednesday, according to police.
They included a Muslim deputy chief for Banang Star district in Yala, a former village chief in Muang district of Narathiwat, a Buddhist grocery store owner gunned down in his Yala shop, and a volunteer security guard in Pattani's Panare district.
A police sergeant was shot and injured in Pattani's Yaring district late Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Den Kama, the 36-year-old chief of the Muslim village of Tohbala in Pattani, was shot dead by unidentified attackers on a motorcycle as he was returning from prayers at a mosque.
At least 610 people have now been killed in southern violence since January 2004 in the region near the Malaysian border.
The region is more than 80 percent Muslim and the people are ethnically Malays.
Amid a barrage of criticism over Thaksin's heavy-handed policies to snuff out the insurgency, his government Thursday stepped back from his contentious scheme to categorise Muslim villages, based on their perceived support for the insurgents.
The scheme, which divides about 1,500 villages into red, yellow or green zones, is only a proposal, said government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair.
Under the plan, more than 350 red villages would see state funding cut so that taxpayer money would not be used to sponsor insurgents, Thaksin said in announcing the policy last week.
Critics said the plan was discriminatory and unconstitutional and likely to inflame tensions.
Human Rights Watch slammed Thaksin's overall tactics, saying it threatened to attract more Islamic militants. "The policies that the government seems to be pursuing almost seem aimed at attracting jihadis," said Brad Adams, HRW's executive director for Asia, noting discomfort in Malaysia and Indonesia over the heavy-handed approach. He also said the policy of blocking funding to some Muslim villages "will inflame tensions rather than resolve them." But Jakrapob said that "the zoning is merely an idea, not government policy, and as of now it is not being implemented or prepared at all." "There was not any instruction which could lead to the separation of villagers. The government wants to offer reassurances that that was not a government policy," he added. Thaksin had earlier berated the many critics of the plan, saying: "What should we do? Give them money so they can buy bombs?" Thaksin has called the first emergency session of parliament in more than 12 years for next month to address the southern issue, the most intractable problem his government has faced. |
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