The Pattani Islamic Mujahideen Movement ( ms, Gerakan Mujahidin Islam Patani; GMIP) is an Islamic insurgent movement that has carried out violent actions as part of the protracted

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irr ...

Southern Thailand Southern Thailand, Southern Siam or Tambralinga is a southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand region by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bounde ...

. GMIP is hostile to the practices of moderate Malay Muslims, accusing them of being un-Islamic. It is one of the most extreme terrorist groups currently operating in Southern Thailand. A shadowy leader named 'Jehkumir Kuteh' or 'Abdul Rahman Ahmad', among other names, was assumed at a certain point to lead the group, and

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

's prime minister demanded from

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

his

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

in January 2005, but the Malaysian government refused.

History

Originally, in the 1990 decade GMIP had the establishment of a local

Islamic state An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

in Pattani as its main agenda. However, according to Thai military authorities, this group and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) were revived after 2001 by the Trengganu-based Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia and have currently more hard-line Islamic political goals, to the detriment of their former

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

cause. Its members are now believed to have sympathies with Al Qaeda and with the establishment of the

Islamic Caliphate A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

. Unlike previous Islamic insurgent groups of the region, the characteristic of this outfit in its new avatar is that it attacks forcefully and does not claim responsibility, and also that it keeps its leadership shrouded in secrecy. GMIP was accused by the Thai authorities as the main instigator of the series of bombings, drive-by shootings and machete attacks in Southern Thailand that began in January 2004.

Rohan Gunaratna Rohan Gunaratna (born 1961) is a Sri Lankan born political analyst specializing in international terrorism. He is the Director General of thInstitute of National Security Studies Professor Gunaratna has over 30 years of academic, policy, and op ...

& Arabinda Acharya , ''The Terrorist Threat from Thailand: Jihad Or Quest for Justice?'' Although its headquarters are unknown, many of the operations of the GMIP suggest that it is rural-based. The Thai military have linked the GMIP to attacks on convoys and policemen in roads crossing rural districts. This terrorist group has also been suspected by Thai officials of being behind the

2006 Hat Yai bombings The 2006 Hat Yai bombings took place in Hat Yai, Songkhla Province, Thailand on 16 September 2006 and are believed to be part of the ongoing South Thailand insurgency. At least four people were killed and 82 were injured."Bomb Blast Aftermath." ...

as well as more recently the

2012 Southern Thailand bombings The 2012 Southern Thailand bombings were a series of bombings that took place in Yala, Yala Province and in Hat Yai, Songkhla Province, on 31 March 2012. Attacks Yala The first attack involved a truck bomb that ripped through a busy shoppi ...

.Hookway, James. "Deadly Thai Blasts Follow Tense Weeks." ''The Wall Street Journal''. 1 April 2012.
Accessed 1 April 2012.

References

Rebel groups in Thailand South Thailand insurgency Islamist groups Jihadist groups {{Paramilitary-org-stub

History

See also

References