Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register BANGKOK, April 16 (Reuters) – Thai insurgents sidelined by peace talks claimed responsibility Saturday for deadly bombings in the far south of the country with a majority of Muslims breaking the Ramadan holiday group. guerrillas and the government. The two blasts on Friday, which killed one civilian and injured three police officers, were carried out by the G5, a Patani United Liberation Organization (PULO) militant group, its president, Kasturi Mahkota, told Reuters. More than 7,300 people have been killed since 2004 in fighting between the government and shadow groups seeking independence for the Malaysian-Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, Pattani and parts of Songkhla. The area was part of Sultanate Patani that Thailand annexed to a 1909 treaty with Britain. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Mahkota said by telephone that the Patani bombings were “business as usual” for PULO, which was left out of talks between the government and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), which agreed two weeks ago to end the violence. during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. until May 14. read more A spokesman for Thailand’s security forces in the south, Colonel Kiatisak Neewong, said without naming PULO that a group not included in the peace talks was likely responsible for bombings aimed at disrupting the Ramadan ceasefire. The Thai peace talks team and the BRN declined to comment. “The talks are not comprehensive enough and are evolving very quickly,” said Kastouri, whose group opposes an agreement that would rule out independence from Thailand with a Buddhist majority. The talks seek a political solution to the decades-long conflict under the Thai constitution. Talks are often interrupted from the beginning of 2013. The last round started in 2019. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Panu Wongcha-um in Bangkok. Edited by William Mallard Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
