Bombs Explode on Train Tracks

Dec. 9, 2004
Bombs Explode on Train Tracks
From correspondents in Bangkok
THE AUSTRALIAN


TRAIN services in three southern Thai provinces were temporarily halted today following simultaneous bomb explosions on railway tracks in a region stalked by an escalating Muslim insurgency, officials said.

Separately, a rubber plantation owner was shot dead this afternoon in Narathiwat province, police said. Isamahae Hawarebuza, 34, was killed by a gunman on the back of a motorcycle as he left a local agriculture cooperative office, said police Lt. Klong Yodangam.

As with scores of similar cases in the area this year, police could not immediately ascertain whether Muslim insurgents were responsible.

The government blames separatists for the intensifying violence in southern Thailand which has taken the lives of more than 540 people this year.

Chitsanti Dhanasobhon, head of the State Railways of Thailand, said four bombs were planted on tracks in the provinces of Yala, Pattani and Songkhla. Three exploded and an anti-bomb squad destroyed the fourth. No casualties were reported and only minor damage was caused by the blasts.

"The bombs were clearly targeted against passenger trains but luckily the railway inspection units got them first," Chitsanti said. Local passenger trains were ordered to suspend services until all tracks were cleared, he said.

The bombs exploded simultaneously at about 6.15am (local time) at Yala's Raman district, Pattani's Kokpo district and Songkhla's Jana district.

The bombs went off as police officers and railways officials made daily inspections of the tracks looking for explosives.

The railway protection units exchanged gunfire with suspected Muslim insurgents in Songkhla and Pattani provinces, but in Yala the inspection squad had travelled past the bomb before it exploded, the railway official said.

The railway bombs were planted four days after the government dropped nearly 100 million paper birds over the region in a gesture to promote peace.

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