03:55 PM
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Bangkok – (BBC):
Police in southern Thailand said three separatists were killed in a shootout in the Muslim-majority province of Narathiwat.
The local police chief said security forces “came under fire” during a forest patrol, leading to a five-hour shootout. No one from the police or army was injured during the attack.
And arose in southern Thailand 20 years ago, a separatist movement in the southernmost provinces on the Malaysian border with Thailand.
Peace talks last year between the government and those groups failed to make any progress.
The percentage of the Muslim population in Thailand ranges between 10 to 15 percent of the total population, who mostly profess Buddhism.
The origins of Muslims go back to the Pattani region, located between Malaysia and Thailand, and all its inhabitants are of the Malay race and speak the Malay language and write in Arabic letters.
A large number of Muslims also live in northern Thailand, who are of Chinese and Burmese origin. There is also a proportion of them in the center of the country of Cambodian, Indian, Indonesian, Arab and Iranian origins.
