Gunman kills three in Thailand s conflict hit south

BANGKOK – A gunman has shot dead three people, including a child, in Thailand’s insurgency-hit south, the police said on May 3 as the authorities pursued the suspect.

The attacker opened fire late on May 2 in a residential area of Tak Bai district in Narathiwat province, one of three Muslim-majority provinces in Thailand’s far south gripped by a decades-long separatist insurgency.

Three people were killed, including a nine-year-old girl and a 75-year-old man, the police said.

“One victim died at the scene, and two others succumbed to their injuries at the hospital,” local police officer Watthana Thurarat told AFP, adding that two more people were wounded.

He said the police believe that the suspect, who remains at large, is linked to a rebel group.

Violence frequently rocks the kingdom’s southern provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where separatists seeking greater autonomy for the religiously distinct region have killed more than 7,000 people since 2004.

But attacks on unarmed civilians in residential areas remain relatively rare, with most targeting security personnel.

In 2004, Thai security forces shot into a crowd of protesters outside a police station in Tak Bai, killing seven.

Subsequently, 78 others suffocated in the back of military trucks after they were arrested – a deadly crackdown widely seen as a trigger for the southern unrest in the Buddhist-majority country.

A Thai court in 2024 dismissed the long-delayed Tak Bai case – brought by victims’ families against seven officials – when the statute of limitations expired.

Analysts have warned that the decision could further inflame tensions in the region. AFP

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