SIX SHOT DEAD IN SOUTHERN THAILAND

BANGKOK, April 28 (Bernama) -- Six people were shot dead in the restive
southern Thai provinces as suspected insurgents went on a rampage with more than
a dozen attacks to mark the fifth anniversary of the Krue Se incident.

The killing took place in Sukae village of Yaha district, Yala province,
when unknown gunmen opened fire at a house around 8.30pm Monday.

A police spokesman said Ismail Latif, 62, and his two sons, Yusuf, 36, and
Waining, 33, died on the spot, while a 36 year-old man known as Tiah died in
hospital. Another woman, believed to Tiah's mother, was seriously injured.

"They were resting in the house when the shooting took place. The gunmen
used automatic weapons, including M16," he said when contacted.

About 15 minutes later, two men aged 48 and 30, were shot dead outside a
mosque in the same village.

In coordinated attacks Monday, insurgents set fire to schools, electrical
transformers and mobile phone signal towers in the three restive provinces of
Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

On 28 April 2004, more than 100 militants carried out attacks against a
dozen police outposts across Pattani, Yala and Songkhla provinces. According to
an official statement, 107 insurgents and five security personnel were killed in
the bloodiest clashes since separatists resumed their campaign for independence
in January 2004.

Controversy erupted after soldiers stormed the 300-year-old Krue Se mosque
in Pattani and shot dead 32 people hiding inside after a nine-hour stand-off on
that day.

Many locals and human rights organisations blamed the rising southern
violence on the incident, as well as on the Tak Bai tragedy on Oct 25, 2004,
when 78 Muslims, stacked one on top of another on the back of military trucks
after being arrested, died when the military convoy reached the army camp in
Pattani.

More than 3,500 people have died in the past five years, as the Thai
security forces struggled to contain the armed conflict despite sending about
60,000 troops to the southern border provinces.

The Malay-speaking provinces, which were an independent Pattani sultanate
before being annexed by the predominantly Buddhist Thailand, had been in
conflict with the Thai government for over a century.
-- BERNAMA