Police investigate whether killing in South Thailand was insurgency related

Police in southern Thailand are investigating whether a recent killing was related to a personal conflict, or the ongoing ‘South Thailand Insurgency’. Officers in Bannang Sata district Yala province found a man’s body in a fruit orchard yesterday.

The body, identified as 43 year old Buraheng Roya, was lying near a motorcycle among the fruit trees. The police said Buraheng had been shot. His body was sent to Bannang Sata Hospital for an autopsy.

The violence and unrest in southern Thailand isn’t ending any time soon. Over 6,500 people died and almost 12,000 were injured between 2004 and 2015 in a formerly ethnic separatist insurgency, which has currently been taken over by hard-line jihadis and pitted them against both the Thai-speaking Buddhist minority and local Muslims who have a moderate approach or who support the Thai government.

Earlier this week, a man in Yala province was sentenced to 46 years in prison after he was charged with terrorism, criminal association, and violating the firearms and explosives law. The man, along with 8 other people, was found guilty of stealing a van from a delivery service, and turning it into a car bomb.

When locals in Raman district noticed the van behind the district’s police office, they grew suspicious, and notified the police’s bomb disposal squad. The squad then found an improvised explosive device in the van. The officers removed the device, and took it to a place where it could be safely destroyed. They later arrested one of the 9 suspects, who pleaded guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to 46 years in prison.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post