One schoolgirl was killed and four others injured, two critically, in a roadside bomb attack apparently intended for soldiers in Pattani on Saturday.
The five secondary school students were travelling home from school on three motorcycles after finishing their examinations when the home-made bomb buried near the road went off.
The incident took place on the Basaair-Nagate road at Ban Totuwor in tambon Pitumudee of Yarang district of the southern province.
Hapueso Sadeh, 18, a grade 6 student at Prasanwitthaya Mullanithi school, died instantly. She was hit by shrapnel in the head, face and torso, said Pol Col Tuande Chutanant, chief of Yarang police station.
The injured victims, all from the same school, are Mariyae Sadeh, 16, the younger sister of the dead victim; Mariyae Dueramae, 16; Maseeto Salaema, 16; and Aresoh Salaema, 16. They were taken to Yarang hospital.
Witnesses told police that the bombers had intended to attack soldiers on a bus that was travelling in front of the students’ motorbikes, but the bomb exploded just after the bus had passed the spot.
Police blamed separatist militants who wanted to incite violence without caring about whether civilians would suffer or die.
The Pattani attack followed the killing earlier on Saturday of a rubber tapper in an ambush in Yala’s Raman district early Saturday morning.
Yuso Daraning, 46, was riding his motorcycle on a local road to his rubber plantation at Ban Buekunae Kuji in tambon Talo when gunmen hiding among the trees fired on him, said Pol Capt Sithiphan Suwanno, duty officer at Jakua police station.
Yuso was shot and fell from his bike. The attackers then ran out toward him and shot him again several times at close range. The victim died on the spot.