SAI BURI, Thailand - At least six people were killed and more than 40 were wounded Friday after a car bomb exploded in a busy shopping street in Thailand's insurgency-hit south, officials told AFP. The car exploded in the Sai Buri district of Pattani in Thailand's so-called deep south, which has been in the grip of a separatist insurgency since 2004.
The bomb exploded in front of a packed market. It apparently went off when police arrived after a shooting was reported outside a jewellery shop.
Six people were killed in the blast which also wounded 29 civilians and 12 police. Most have been taken to Pattani hospital.
The insurgency has claimed thousands of Buddhist and Muslim lives in southern Thailand. It is thought to be a response to discrimination against ethnic Malay Muslims by Thai governments.
A complex insurgency calling for greater autonomy has plagued Thailand's Muslim-majority far south near the border with Malaysia since 2004, claiming more than 5,300 lives, both Buddhist and Muslim, with near daily bomb or gun attacks.
An army spokesman said CCTV footage showed three militants opening fire on shops in Sai Buri town centre shortly after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority region, to lure security forces to the scene, before detonating the bomb.
The bomb, which sparked a fire that destroyed several shops, was meant as a warning to locals not to talk with security forces after nearly 100 suspected militants "surrendered" last week, according to Colonel Pramote Prom-in, an army spokesman in the south.
Source: Agencies
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