Thaindian News

YALA, THAILAND (BNO NEWS) — A bomb explosion killed eight people and wounded two others in the southern province of Yala in Thailand on Tuesday, MCOT online news reported.



The bomb targeted a pickup truck which was carrying ten villagers back from collecting forest products and is believed to have been activated by a mobile phone. Eight passengers in the vehicle were killed immediately.

Last week, the government said it extended an emergency law in southern Thailand. The emergency decree, which was first introduced 5 years ago, is in effect for the three southernmost provinces - Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat.

The decree allows authorities to make arrests without charges, detain suspects for weeks and grants security forces some immunity from prosecution for actions carried out in the line of duty.



Earlier, the emergency decree was lifted in Pattani’s Mae Lan district, which the government claims is stable. The emergency decree has been replaced by the Internal Security Act. This could eventually lead to the lifting of the decree in other areas of the three provinces.

The government noted that before the emergency decree in the far South would expire, it would consider extending the special law only in areas where unrest continues.

“The policy of my government is not to create conditions that could provoke more violence by allowing the authorities to abuse the law,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said last year, as a number of rights activists have criticized the decree, saying it gives military forces legal immunity.

Claims that the deep South, a majority Muslim area including Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces, are gaining peace and stability have been met with new attacks. Last week, four soldiers were killed and six others were wounded after dozens of armed rebels raided a military camp in the southern province of Narathiwat.

In January 2004, Muslim militants raided a military arms depot, killing five soldiers and making off with 350 semi-automatic rifles. After the raid, Thailand’s army launched a series of attacks on the separatists in the mainly Muslim deep South.

Separatist groups in the southern regions, which are for a majority Muslim, have brought constant and violent uprisings in the region for the past 6 years. Over 4,000 people have died and more than 7,000 others have been injured during this period.