Thailand clamped tight security on its restive Muslim south on Sunday after a bomb exploded outside a bar, wounding 29 people in the first major attack on a civilian target since a wave of violence began in January.
Security forces set up roadblocks in and around the Thai-Malaysian border town of Sunghai Kolok where seven Malaysian tourists were among those injured when the bomb hidden in a motorcycle exploded outside a karaoke bar.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack in Narathiwat province, one of three provinces under martial law since gunmen attacked a southern army camp in January, killed four soldiers and made off with many weapons.
Open-air bar
“We have strengthened our security in the province. It’s still not clear who did this,” said police spokesman Chanpol Chaiyadej.
He denied reports that one of the Malaysian tourists had died. Thirteen people were still in hospital.
Most of the injured were bar girls and waitresses working at the Top Ten club, an open-air bar next to the Marina Hotel in the border town popular with Malaysian tourists.
Police suspected the bomb had been detonated remotely.
More than 60 people have been killed in the region, where many of Thailand’s six million Muslims live, since the January army raid. Many of the attacks have been carried out by people on motorcycles.
Some officials believe the violence may be part of a resurgence of a low-key separatist war in the 1970s and 1980s. The government blames a mixture of separatists and gangsters in a region also notorious for smuggling arms and drugs.
Chief government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair condemned the attack, which he said was the first to target civilians in the southern violence. Previous attacks have been aimed at police or government officials and buildings.
'Innocent people'
“They are now taking aim at the lives of innocent people rather than the symbols of government,” he said late on Saturday.
“This will justify the government’s use of force. The only way to suppress them is by deploying violent means against them.”
Muslim leaders have asked the government to lift martial law, which they say is disrupting economic life in a region heavily dependent on rubber tapping and fishing, which involves moving around at night.
The government says it is imposing martial law with as light a hand as it can and issues frequent appeals for people to come forward with information on who is behind the killings.
