A mother and her daughter were gunned down on their way home from a market in Yala’s Betong district, while a female teacher was shot outside her house in Pattani’s Khok Pho district yesterday, police said.
In Yala province, officers said they were alerted to the shooting on the Yala-Betong Road at 9.30am.
They found the body of a woman in a pool of blood and a motorcycle nearby. She was identified as 35-year-old Sirirat Sae-chan.
Police said the woman’s mother, Salinee Sae Tong, 55, sustained gunshot wounds and was rushed to Betong Hospital for treatment but died soon after.
Officers at the scene found eight bullet casings thought to be from 9mm pistols used by the suspects.
Police said an investigation is under way to establish the motive.
In Pattani province, Ban Kuan Tan teacher Issara Chairitchock, 52, was shot dead by suspects on a motorcycle yesterday afternoon. The female teacher was running a grocery shop from her house. The suspects pretended they wanted to buy petrol and shot her in the head and back as she tried to serve them, police said.
She was taken to a hospital nearby and pronounced dead yesterday evening.
In Narathiwat, a village security volunteer suffered injuries after falling into a booby trap in Rueso district yesterday.
Police said six volunteers found a suspicious paper box during a foot patrol in Ban Bluka village. They thought the box contained a bomb so decided to shoot at it in an attempt to destroy the suspected device.
The box did not explode but one of the volunteers stepped on a booby trap believed to have been set by insurgents. He sustained shrapnel wounds and was taken to Rueso Hospital.
Police sent to inspect the scene said they found a message saying the “Sovereign State of Pattani” written on a pole near where the incident took place.
Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 spokesman Col Pramote Prom-in confirmed his division had successfully tracked down a key insurgency group, two leaders of which were shot dead by security forces in Pattani on Friday.
Authorities raided a construction site in Ban Kok Tanot on Friday, after a tip-off that members of the Runda Kumpulan Kecil insurgency group were hiding there.
He said officials had asked a local imam to persuade the suspects to surrender.
Five suspects stepped forward unarmed and gave themselves up. They said two of their group were still hiding. A gunfight ensued and the pair were shot dead.
Police identified the two dead as insurgency leaders Russadee Baerosamae, 33, and Abdullahman Jaetam, 31.
The five men were questioned by officers. Two were freed after they were found to be under the age of 18.