Two bombings and a shooting occurred in the southern border provinces of Narathiwat and Pattani on Friday morning and a father and his three young children were injured.
A bomb in a cooking gas cylinder was detonated near a power pole on a road to Sadet beach in Jeh Hay sub-district of Tak Bai district, Narathiwat, about 8.15am. Shrapnel injured Mu-ariran Layo-ngo and his three young children, who were riding their motorcycle and sidecar back home from morning exercise at the beach.
They were treated at Tak Bai Hospital.
Authorities also found a steel box containing a bomb at the base of a nearby power pole. The bomb was set to explode on contact. They destroyed it using a high-pressure water hose.
In Pattani, a bomb detonated as a security unit was patrolling on Mayo-Thung Yang Daeng Road (Highway 4092) in Mayo district about 8am.
Some shrapnel hit their armoured vehicle and two soldiers and two defence volunteers suffered a temporary hearing loss.
Bomb disposal experts found three other bombs in the vicinity and destroyed them.
On a road to Ban Toh Chud village in Pithen sub-district of Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district, officials found a banner with a handwritten message declaring "four will not die for nothing" on Friday morning.
Rangers killed four men in a raid there in late March following a tip-off that some militants were there and plotting an attack in the district, where the government is pioneering its peace-restoration solutions for the violence-plagued far South.
An inquiry later found the four victims were not militants and had not been carrying any weapons.
In Kapo district, Pattani, a rangers' base was attacked by gunmen on motorcycles on Friday morning. The two sides exchanged shots for about five minutes. There were no injuries.
Mu-ariran Layo-ngo is treated for shrapnel wounds at Tak Bai Hospital, Narathiwat, on Friday. He and his three young children were wounded by an exploding bomb while returning from morning exercise at the beach. (Photo by Waedao Harai)