Suspected insurgents set off 14 bombs in the southern Thailand town of Narathiwat, throwing the provincial capital into darkness for several hours on Wednesday night and leaving one person dead, media reports said on Thursday.
The first bombs were exploded beneath three power poles at 7pm local time, causing a blackout in Narathiwat, 780km south of Bangkok, for several hours.
The initial explosions were followed by attempted attacks on 11 other public places, including Narathiwat prison, a customs checkpoint, a gas plant and a food house, although bomb experts were able to defuse several of the devices before they exploded, said the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA).
The body of one suspected insurgent was found dead near a damaged power pole, said TNA.
A similar attack occurred three months ago in nearby Yala city, leaving two police officers dead and 17 civilians injured.
The attack was launched on July 14 with an explosion that toppled an electricity pole, plunging Yala, 760km south of Bangkok, into darkness for an hour.
In the blackout, scores of assailants attacked houses and shops owned by Thai Buddhists, set off six handmade bombs and clashed with police, leaving two officers dead.
The Yala attacks prompted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to place Thailand’s three southernmost provinces under emergency decree, allowing authorities to arrest suspected Muslim militants and detain them without charges for up to a month.
So far, the decree has failed to curb the unrest in the deep South, where up to 1 000 people have died in clashes with authorities or revenge killings over the past 23 months.
The prime minister’s heavy-handed tactics last year, resulting in at least two major crackdowns on Thai Muslims that left more than 200 dead, were criticised for fuelling animosity that the region has historically nurtured towards Bangkok governments.
Thailand’s three southernmost provinces were once an independent Islamic state known as Pattani. The region was first conquered by Bangkok in 1786 and brought under Thailand’s central bureaucracy in 1902.
A separatist movement has simmered in the area for decades, driven by a sense of cultural, religious and economic alienation from predominantly Buddhist Thailand. — Sapa-DPA