Bangkok, 17 July (AKI) – Thirty-one injured and one dead is the tally of Tuesday morning’s double bomb explosions in Yala, one of the three predominately Muslim provinces of Thailand, where bloody and secretive insurgent groups have killed over 2,400 people since January 2004.
As it is often the case in this region, reports say that the second blast was triggered to inflict maximum damage against those who had converged on the scene of the first explosion.
On Tuesday the police said that nine security personnel, several onlookers and pressmen from TV7, TV3, Reuters and ASTV News 1, were among the injured.
The double bomb attacks follow 40 coordinated violence-related incidents in Narathiwat on Monday, including the burning of schools, nails thrown onto roads and trees being cut to block the police.
The pace of the attacks is not unusual. Data for the first week of July alone shows that 32 people and three militants were killed, and 94 were wounded. In the same seven day period, 23 bombs detonated and three were defused.
