Two dead in 7 Pattani attacks

Two dead in 7 Pattani attacks

A trawler was damaged by a bomb and six other locations in Pattani were hit by violence on Wednesday night, killing two military rangers.

Police said the Chok Surasak fishing boat berthed at a pier in Muang district was bombed around 8.20pm but no injuries were reported.

A witness saw people believed to be insurgents approach the fishing vessel in a small boat, and plant what turned out to be a bomb at the rear of the trawler, according to police. The witness could not give an exact number of suspected insurgents were involved.

Militants also stirred trouble in Kapho, Panare, Khok Pho, Yarang and Sai Buri districts, with apparently coordinated attacks around 8pm, police said.

Suspected insurgents attacked a base of defence volunteers at Karubee School in Kapo and a community centre at Moo 4 in Panare. A vocational training centre in Sai Buri municipality and a public telephone booth in front of the Panare post office were burnt. Tyres were also burnt in Khok Pho and Yarang.

Two rangers were killed by insurgents during the attack on the community centre in Panare, one of them a lieutenant.

Violence intensified in the restive region after peace talks began, with officials specifically targetted. Insurgents last week killed Yala deputy governor Issra Thongthawat and Chaovalit Chaireuk, the province's assistant governor. The two were killed by a roadside bomb attack in Bannang Sata district on Friday.

The deaths raised doubt about Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) representatives' ability to direct militants operating in the region to ease their attacks as a gesture for their intention to put an end to the violence.

Despite critics' growing pessimism about peace talks, locals in the southern border provinces are behind the efforts to end violence in negotiations with separatists, an official said on Wednesday.

"They are weary of violence," Piya Kittaworn, deputy secretary-general of the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, told a forum organised by the Thai Journalists Association earlier in the day.

He backed up his statement with a survey by Prince of Songkla University, which showed overwhelming support for the talks with BRN.

The survey showed 67% of residents in the deep South backed the negotiations - and the other third opposed them.

The survey was conducted in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, and four districts of Songkhla from March 18-25. Its 1,870 samples were selected from local leaders, religious leaders and people in all villages in the area, Mr Piya said.

But when asked to score their confidence about the talks on a scale of 1 to 10 - least optimistic to most - most rated them at 5.

The first round of talks led by the National Security Council took place on March 28 in Kuala Lumpur. The next round, scheduled for April 29, likely will be postponed because of the campaign for the May 5 election in Malaysia.

Malaysia facilitates the meeting by bringing Thai negotiators to sit at the table with the BRN, whose officials live in Malaysia.

The official cautioned that peace efforts will make no progress without support from people in the restive region.

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