At least three people have been killed when a bomb exploded on train tracks in Thailand’s troubled south, where violence has escalated amid the separatist Muslim conflict in recent weeks.
The head of the Khlong Ngae Police Station, Chatchai Chanasith, confirmed that the attack caused three deaths and that they have not been able to identify the perpetrators of the attack, which occurred in Songkhla province.
The explosion occurred near where another bomb exploded last Saturday, injuring several people when it derailed a freight train carrying rubber to Malaysia.
Today’s fatalities are three workers of the state train company who were involved in cleaning up Saturday’s attack, which damaged 20 carriages of the train, according to the Bangkok Post.
Police have not identified those responsible for the attacks, who have not been claimed either, which is common in this conflict.
Attacks have increased in southern Thailand in recent weeks, including a car bomb explosion that killed and wounded 32 people at a police housing complex in Narathiwat province.
On November 16, one person was injured when several bombs exploded at two gas stations in Pattani province.
Attacks with light weapons or explosives and assassinations are frequent in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, all located in southern Thailand, as a result of the armed struggle of the Muslim separatist movement.
In recent decades, the region has been the scene of violent conflicts following an insurgency by separatist groups clamoring for independence in the three predominantly Muslim provinces, as well as parts of Songkhla.
Muslim rebels denounce discrimination by the country’s Buddhist majority and demand the right to self-determination in the three southern provinces, which formed the former Patani sultanate before its annexation to present-day Thailand in the early twentieth century.
The Thai government and insurgency have held intermittent negotiations in Malaysia for more than a decade.
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