A teenaged Muslim man was killed and his body set on fire in the latest deadly violence in Thailand's Muslim-majority far south on Saturday, police said. The 19-year-old man in Yala province was killed before dawn, his neck slashed, Police Lieutenant-Colonel Charoen Nuantong told reporters.
"His body was set on fire and he was left beside the entrance to a rubber plantation," he said. There was no clue to who killed him. Charoen said his death could be due to a personal conflict or intended to disturb the peace in the predominantly Muslin region, where nearly 3,500 people have been killed in five years of unrest.
On Wednesday, police said suspected separatist insurgents had shot dead a Buddhist defence volunteer and set fire to his body in Pattani province. Yala and the neighbouring provinces of Pattani and Narathiwat, abutting Malaysia, were a Muslim sultanate until annexed a century ago by predominantly Buddhist Thailand. Around 80 percent of people there are Muslim and speak a Malay dialect.
The violence in the south has ranged from drive-by shootings to bombings and beheadings. It often targets Buddhists and Muslims associated with the Thai state, such as police, soldiers, government officials and teachers. No credible group has claimed responsibility for the violence, which the 30,000 troops stationed in the rubber-rich region have failed to quell.
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