South Thailand under bomb attacks!

Various shops and restaurants located in the southern parts of Thailand’s tourist hubs were severely targeted with as many as seven small bomb explosions! Two bombs hit Hat Yai and five exploded in Songkhla Town within hours of each other late on Saturday the 2nd of August. While two people were killed in separate attacks, two women aged 16 and 18 were also hit by shrapnel but are expected to recover from their injuries soon.

At about 9:00pm (1400 GMT), the first blasts were heard by the locals. The attacks have affected 7-Eleven convenience stores, a restaurant, a tea shop and a police checkpoint.

Hat Yai is the main tourist hub in the southern region and is particularly popular with Malaysian and Singaporean tourists. It has been a soft target of sporadic bombings over the last 2 years. Since then it has been struggling to fight back. Songkhla province borders Pattani and Yala, two of three southern Muslim-majority provinces. The unrest here has killed more than 3000 people since 2004!

Who could possibly be connected to these blasts is yet to be figured out though Songkhla’s police chief, Major General Viroon Aiempaijit, said police were collecting evidences to zero down on the guilty.