Sekurang-kurangnya tiga terbunuh dan berpuluh-puluh lagi cedera parah dalam tiga letupan bom di selatan Thailand malam ini dalam jangka masa yang hampir serentak.Ketiga-tiga kejadian itu berlaku di Lapangan Terbang Haadyai, pusat membeli-belah Carrefour dan Hotel Dream World di Songkhla.
Laporan awal memberikan pelbagai angka kematian dalam kejadian tersebut namun Gabenor Songkhla, Somporn Chaibongyang berkata, dua orang terbunuh dan 15 lagi cedera dalam letupan di lapangan terbang berkenaan.
Laporan tidak rasmi dan saksi-saksi pula mendakwa, sekurang-kurangnya tiga terbunuh dalam insiden tersebut yang berlaku di kaunter daftar masuk.
Somporn berkata, kejadian-kejadian itu mungkin merupakan aktiviti pemberontakan yang kian merebak di selatan negara tersebut.
Beliau menambah, lima lagi cedera dalam satu letupan bom di sebuah pasar raya Perancis, Carrefour di bandar Haadyai.
Menurut laporan yang masih belum disahkan oleh stesen televisyen Thai ITV, dua orang terbunuh dalam pasar raya berkenaan.
``Letupan bom ketiga berlaku di sebuah hotel di bandar Songkhla,'' katanya tetapi menyatakan beliau masih belum mempunyai laporan lanjut berhubung kejadian itu.
Polis berkata, bom dalam kejadian di Songkhla itu telah diletakkan di atas sebuah motosikal yang terletak di Hotel Dream World dan diletupkan dengan alat kawalan jauh pada pukul 8.27 malam (9.27 malam waktu Malaysia).
Seorang pegawai polis yang tidak mahu dikenali berkata, tiada kecederaan dilaporkan dalam kejadian itu yang berlaku pada waktu yang sama dengan letupan di lapangan terbang berkenaan.
Panglima Tentera Thailand, Jeneral Chaiyasit Shinawatra mengesahkan letupan-letupan berkenaan. Beliau berkata, pasukan keselamatan diletakkan dalam keadaan berjaga-jaga kerana menurut laporan perisikan menunjukkan satu bom kereta akan diletupkan.
Kejadian itu merupakan kejadian pertama membabitkan letupan bom di bandar Haadyai yang mengakibatkan kematian tahun ini.
Sebelum ini pada 3 Mac 2002, sebuah bas yang membawa pelancong dari Malaysia rosak akibat letupan bom jangka di bandar tersebut.
Dalam kejadian itu, tiada rakyat Malaysia yang terlibat.
Pada tahun 2001, sebutir bom meletup di sebuah stesen kereta api di Haadyai mengakibatkan satu kematian dan mencederakan berpuluh-puluh orang awam.
Haadyai yang terkenal dengan hiburan malam, berjaya menarik para pelancong asing termasuk dari Malaysia terutamanya pada musim cuti persekolahan dan cuti hujung minggu. - Agensi
Bombing greets Abhisit and Najib in the South/Sembilan Letupan Bom Di Selatan Thailand
Both leaders promise to address grievances
Narathiwat - Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and his Malaysian counterpart, Najib Razak, made a historic visit to the southernmost province of Narathiwat to rename a bridge between the two countries.
The visit came amid a flurry of bomb attacks in the restive region where nearly 4,000 people have died since January 2004.
The two leaders arrived in a helicopter in Waeng district to commemorate the Thai-Malay Friendship Bridge over the Sungai Kolok River, a natural boundary that cuts through a Malay-speaking region where most people on either side are related.
"With so many people and goods crossing this bridge every day we are strengthening our bonds," Abhisit said at the ceremony.
"I have no doubt that this Friendship Bridge will serve its noble purpose," Najib added.
The Malaysian premier's three-day visit to Thailand was billed as a model of how the two countries, despite the security challenges along their common border, could cooperate.
One of the subjects both sides agreed upon was eliminating the dual citizenship held by people along the border by first exchanging personal bio-data of residents, such as fingerprints.
The leaders also visited a public school, an Islamic school as well as a handicraft village and a "widows' village" occupied by some 140 families affected by the unrest.
Security forces were mobilised in the thousands in areas visited by the leaders, but the violence-wracked region lived up to its reputation and greeted them with a higher-than-usual spate of violence.
Four bombs went off in Yala's provincial capital yesterday morning, with one killing a forensics police officer and three security officials, while another wounded two soldiers and a policeman assigned to a security detail for teachers.
Earlier in the day, Thai marines were wounded in a bomb and gun attack in Narathiwat as they tried to collect banners criticising Abhisit's policies on the South.
Banners posted throughout the three provinces in both Jawi (Arabic script) and Rumi (Roman script) read "Patani sebahagian daripada Malaysia" or "Patani is part of Malaysia".
"They could have been posted with the intention of annoying the delegations," Pattani Senator Worawit Baru said, pointing out that militants often spray-painted "Patani Merdeka" (Free Patani) on building facades.
On Tuesday a bomb killed two soldiers along a road in Narathiwat that Abhisit and Najib were scheduled to travel through.
In a related development, the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo), a long-established group of separatists, said they welcomed the statement from Najib and Abhisit saying the grievances of Malays in the South would be addressed and that a political solution to the conflict would be sought.
"It is important for the government to speak to the people of Patani, including the Patani Malay movement that has been forced to resort to armed struggle, to ensure that the voice of the people can be heard and their grievances taken into account," Pulo said in a statement yesterday. -nationmultimedia
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