BANGKOK – Petrol stations and convenience stores in at least 11 locations in southern Thailand were set on fire or bombed, injuring three people.
The alleged coordinated insurgent attacks carried out in Yala, Narathiwat, and Pattani started yesterday night until early morning today, reported Bangkok Post.
Yala police investigator Sarayut Kochawong said a man wearing a mask and dressed in a Muslim woman’s clothing walked into a convenience store in a petrol station in the Ya;a district at about 11.50pm.
The man reportedly left a black bag on the counter and told the people inside to leave. Some 10 minutes later a bomb went off in the store.
Meanwhile, at midnight four men on two motorcycles threw a bomb at a convenience store in Bannang Sata district. Other bombs went off in two convenience stores and a telecommunications tower in nearby districts.
In Narathiwat’s Bacho district, it was reported that a convenience store in a petrol station caught fire at 12.45am. A delivery man was injured and sent to the nearest hospital.
A petrol station’s store in Si Sakhon district was set on fire, injuring a 14-year-old boy and a 23-year-old woman.
In the Sg Kolok district, two fuel pumps in a petrol station were damaged by arsonists, who also struck two stores in Cho Airong district.
The attacks in Pattani started at about 12.20am where a bomb went off at a petrol station in Nong Chik. The fire spread to an oil truck and two trailers parked at the station.
At 12.30am, a store in Thung Yang Daeng district was set on fire.
Police were quoted as saying that they are investigating the incidents as coordinated attacks. – AFP, August 17, 2022
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