Bomb kills three at Thai market

BANGKOK: A motorcycle bomb exploded in a market in Thailand’s Yala province yesterday, killing three and wounding 22, a spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) said, the first such attack in the region in months.

The provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in Thailand’s far south are home to a long-running insurgency in which over 6,000 have been killed since 2004.

“The criminals put a bomb in a motorcycle and placed it next to a market cart. The force of the explosion caused three people to lose their lives,” ISOC spokesman Pramote Prom-in said.

The ISOC is a government security force that operates in the region.

No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack yesterday, which took place at a morning market.

Police said the motorcycle was placed near a stall selling pork.

It was not immediately clear whether the bomb was deliberately placed at the pork stall.

The stall’s female owner and a male customer were among the three people killed, police said.

The bomb blew off chunks of the market’s corrugated tin roof and wrecked nearby stalls.

The southern provinces have seen hundreds of attacks since 2004, many of them deadly, but there had been fewer violent incidents of late.

Analysts who monitor the conflict say violence from the insurgency fell to an historic low in 2017 despite the fact that peace talks gained little traction.

Thailand’s military government has tried to revive talks with rebel groups initiated by the previous civilian government, but they have gone almost nowhere. – Reuters