THE TERRORIST ATTACK IN THAILAND

The insurgents in the southern provinces of Thailand staged a coordinated bomb attack killing 14 people and injuring as many as 350 on Saturday, 31^st March and it was the worst attack in recent times.  The first one exploded in a busy street of Yala city and the bomb was hidden in a pick up truck.  The other one exploded about 20 minutes later in a car parked nearby the 1^st explosion site in the same street when people were gathering after the 1st explosion. A bomb also exploded kept in a car parked near an high rise hotel in Hat Yai city. This is the first time such a coordinated and well planned attack is made in Thailand and the warning is that insurgents are gaining strength and have attained the know-how to stage a planned multi area attack.

 Three provinces of Southern Thailand, Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani,  were a separate entity called the Malay Muslim Sultanate before it was annexed to Thailand. The Malay Kingdoms were Islamized long past in 13^th century and adopted name as Pattani Kingdom. The three provinces which have a different culture could not align with the Buddhist Thai nation. This is the crux of the problem. The economic backwardness is another factor. The insurgency has by now killed thousands of people and the country could not find a solution yet as there are problems related to religion, ethnicity, poverty, lack of education etc and, fortunately, no link with mainstream terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda could be traced so far.

The queer thing about it is that they have not put up any particular demand like separate state or separate administrative set up other than silently killing people and no particular group take up responsibility. It shows the groups have not fully developed in to a hard core terrorist out fit like elsewhere in the world. However they are gathering strength and unless the Thai Government found a solution to deal them the violence and terrorism have every chance to escalate into serious proportions.

The Yingluck Government is young and has been facing problems like floods
etc ever since it took power. She wants the dialogue way for the problem whereas the Military wants strong-arm methods against the insurgents. The Prime Minister’s method of finding a solution thru dialogue seems sane considering the history of terrorism round the world. The U.S has been at war with terrorists in Afghanistan for a decade and yet it is no where near an end.

 Thailand is known as a ‘ land of smiles’because of the people's courteous behavior  and tourism is a big industry there. Terrorists are no friends of tourists and it makes the situation serious and a solution urgent.

 Image: Google