No link between Pattani bombing and earlier attacks: Thailand

BANGKOK — Thailand’s military government said yesterday there was no connection between two bombings overnight that killed one person in the southern town of Pattani and a wave of deadly attacks on popular tourist spots in the south this month.

A Thai national was killed and 30 wounded when two bombs exploded late on Tuesday at the Southern View Hotel in the coastal town of Pattani, less than two weeks after a wave of unexplained bombings hit seven provinces in the south. No group has claimed responsibility for those bombings, which killed four and wounded dozens, including foreign tourists.

Pictures of the latest bombing showed fires burning on the road outside the hotel’s shattered facade, with police picking through the rubble. Nearby, a car was destroyed and karaoke bars, massage parlours and restaurants were also damaged.

Pattani is not popular with tourists. It is one of three Muslim-majority southern provinces battered by a long-running and shadowy rebellion against the Buddhist-majority state.

However, analysts said the militants were sending a message after coordinated bomb and arson attacks that struck multiple resort towns on Aug 11-12. Those attacks heightened concerns that Thailand’s southern insurgency may have spread north after years of stalled peace talks — a theory the country’s junta has downplayed given the importance of tourism to the economy.

The entertainment district hit by the car bomb is one of only a handful in the restive south, offering bars, a disco and prostitution, said Mr Don Pathan, a security analyst based in the region.

The southern rebels focus most of their attacks on security officers and symbols of the state, but they do occasionally strike nightlife venues.

“The campaign against social evil is not very high on the agenda of the insurgents here. Their strategy right now is to make the area as ungovernable as possible,” said Mr Pathan.

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, however, quickly ruled out any link between those attacks and the twin bombs in Pattani. “I am sure that the incident in Pattani last night has nothing to do with the seven provinces attacks,” Mr Prawit told reporters at Bangkok’s Government House, without giving any further details.

Police said the first explosion in a carpark at the back of the hotel in Pattani caused no casualties. However, the second blast outside the hotel entrance appeared to have been a bomb placed in a stolen hospital pick-up truck that had been mistaken for an ambulance.

Since 2004, a low-intensity but brutal war between government troops and insurgents has killed more than 6,500 people in the three southern provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat that border Malaysia.

Peace talks between the government and a handful of insurgent groups began in 2013 under the civilian government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but have stalled since the military overthrew her in 2014. Mr Prawit said the military government would not enter talks with separatist groups until there was peace in the region. “It has to be peaceful first and then we can discuss,” he added.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said after his weekly Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that there were “no quick fixes in the south”.

Still, the military insists that security in the south has improved and has said it would reduce the number of soldiers posted there from October.

There is deep distrust between Muslims and the authorities in the region, which rights groups say is partly due to a culture of impunity among military officials operating in the south.

The three provinces soundly rejected a referendum earlier this month on a new military-backed Constitution, which passed convincingly in most of the rest of Thailand. AGENCIES