Thai police suspect separatist over Monday's blast
14:11 20/10/2009 BANGKOK, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Thailand's police force is searching for a separatist militant suspected over yesterday's fatal explosion in a market in the country's south, the Bangkok Post said on Tuesday.
A home-made bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off in the city of Yala, in a predominantly Muslim region on the border with Malaysia, on Monday morning. Twenty five people died.
The suspect, Usman Dorkhor, also known as Jehkhoo Samarn, is also believed to have organized a militant group being behind the recent killing of five rangers. The militants may have been involved in several earlier bomb attacks, the paper quoted a police source as saying.
Investigators believe Usman was seeking revenge against the authorities over the arrests of several insurgents under his command.
The Thai government extended by three months last Tuesday emergency rule over the country's insurgency-plagued southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala and parts of Songkhla.
Over 3,900 people have been killed there since violence escalated in January 2004.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
