Suspected Islamic militants beheaded a Myanmar migrant worker in front of his teenage daughter in the most gruesome of a spate of attacks in Thailand’s troubled south, police said on Friday.
Several militants burst into the house of the 36-year-old prawn farm worker late Thursday, blindfolded his teenage daughter and shot the man at close range before beheading him, police said.
The militants then dropped his head along a roadside in the man’s village in Pattani, one of three restive provinces bordering Malaysia, police said.
When police went to recover the severed head, a small bomb exploded, but no one was hurt in the blast.
Meanwhile, a 50-year-old Buddhist man was killed in a drive-by shooting early on Friday in Narathiwat province, police said.
And in neighbouring Yala province, a policeman was seriously injured in a bombing at a village teashop, police said.
The latest attacks came amid indications from Thailand’s military leaders, who seized power in a bloodless coup last month, that authorities want to hold peace talks in a bid to resolve the long-running insurgency in the south.
More than 1 500 people have been killed since the violence erupted in January 2004.
Most of the casualties have been among civilians. Local government officials, police and military are often targeted by Islamic insurgents.
The region was an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago. Separatist unrest has simmered ever since. – AFP
