YALA (Thailand)- SUSPECTED separatist insurgents shot dead four people in attacks across Thailand's mainly Muslim far south on Sunday, police said.
In Pattani province, a 60-year-old Muslim rubber tapper was killed as he filled his motorbike at a petrol station, while in a separate attack a Buddhist market vendor was shot dead as he travelled to work.
In nearby Yala province, a 22-year-old Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting. Hours later in the same province, two men on a motorcycle shot dead a 50-year-old Muslim man who worked for the local village chief.
At least 3,400 people have been killed since separatist unrest erupted more than four years ago in the south of Thailand. Tensions in the region have simmered since Thailand annexed the mainly ethnic Malay sultanate in 1902. -- AFP
