Two rubber tappers were shot and killed in an ambush on a local road near a rubber plantation in Pattani’s Khok Pho district early Tuesday morning, reports said.
They were identified as Phon Mitsorn, 65, and his wife Nid, also 65, residents of Ban Kluay in tambon Na Pradu of Khok Pho district.
Witnesses told police they the couple were traveling on a motorcycle to their rubber plantation when gunmen hiding in the roadside forest fired on them with an AK47 assault rifle and 11mm handgun. The assailants then fled.
The victims were hit several times in the head and torso and died on the spot.
Police blamed separatist militants.
Since the resurgence of the insurgency in January 2004, there have been about 11,000 violent incidents instigated by secessionists in the Muslim-dominant southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, with almost 5,000 people killed and nearly 8,000 injured.