Police, suspect hurt by roadside bomb in southern Thailand

Two police and a criminal case suspect were wounded yesterday after a 20 kilogram roadside bomb went off in Yala's Muang district while officers from Pratae station transferred the suspect to Muang Yala station.

The explosion, at 10.30 a.m. on Ban Niang-Yaha road in Tambon Yala, turned the police pick-up over. Injured were Lieutenant Thanawat Boonmak, Police Sergeant Paosi Samae and suspect Assaming Adi.

Police blamed separatists. They said suspected insurgents also planted road spikes and a suspicious box on the road to slow down investigators at the scene.

Meanwhile, a villager was shot dead and his wife injured in a drive-by shooting in Sai Buri Pattani's district yesterday.

The couple, driving their pick-up home in Narathiwat at 1 p.m. on the highway 42 (Pattani-Narathiwat), was shot by two men on a motorcycle. Nareudom Thab-ngern, 48, died instantly while his 42-year-old wife Liab Saiyos had her arm grazed by the bullet.

Police were checking to see if the shooting stemmed from a personal conflict or ongoing violence in the region.-Asia News Network (October 07, 2012)