Three Dead In Thai South Night Of Violence

BANGKOK, Nov 3 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 03rd Nov, 2016 ) : Three people were shot dead in a night of violence across Thailand's restive deep south, in apparently coordinated attacks coinciding with a visit by the new minister.

The assaults began late Wednesday and rippled out over a wide area in the following hours with shootings, arson and bombings as well as the unfurling of banners decrying Thailand, which colonised the region more than a century ago.

More than 6,600 people -- the majority civilians -- have died in a 12-year insurgency across the country's southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia as rebels fight for greater autonomy from the Buddhist-majority state.

Two security guards were gunned down in Songkhla, one of the four provinces claimed as a historic sultanate by the rebels. "They were shot and killed at a car showroom," Lieutenant Colonel Pipop Chanapol of Songkhla police told AFP, adding the suspected rebels then torched the premises. APP/AFP/anm