Thailand: Gangsters Get Religion

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August 14, 2006: Islamic terrorists in the south are now using the two bomb technique, to cause injuries among those responding to the initial explosion. Such an attack was carried out over the weekend, leaving two dead and 14 wounded. However, more common than the bombings are the individual murders. One or more terrorists will arrive on a motorcycle, kill their victim and speed off. Arrests have been made, and some of the murderers have been convicted, but this has not stopped the murders.
Police vehicles are regularly shot at, and as a result, at least three dozen police vans have been equipped with some bullet proof steel plates.
The violence in the south is still pretty low key, with fifty or so people getting killed each month in the southern provinces. That's several times the national average for murders, and people are understandably upset. But for decades, the southern provinces lived in fear from the smuggling gangs that dominated the area. Now, some of those gangsters have got religion, and are trying to establish their own independent country with those three Moslem provinces. It's every gangsters dream, to have your own country.