Timeline of events related to the South Thailand insurgency

This article lists a chronology of events in the South Thailand insurgency from the 1960s. Most take place in the Muslim-majority, contested provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala in the far south of Thailand bordering Muslim Malaysia.

For earlier events see History of Thailand.

Timeline

1960–1998

Although the conflict was carried out with less intensity, armed resistance in the 1960s and 1970s involved up to 1,500 insurgents.

1960: The Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) was founded by Haji Abdul Karim in response to the introduction of a secular curriculum in Pattani's religious boarding schools.

1968: Patani United Liberation Organisation (PULO) was founded by Tengku Bira Kotanila (alias Kabir Abdul Rahman). PULO became the most powerful insurgent group during the 1960 – 2000 period of the war.

29 November 1975: Thai marines allegedly murdered five Muslim youths in the Bacho District of Narathiwat Province. The government allegedly failed to conduct a proper investigation into the matter.

11 December 1975: PULO organised mass protests in response to the event, which were joined by 70,000 Malay Muslims. A bomb was thrown into the crowd killing 12 and injuring at least 30 protesters. The attack was blamed on Buddhist extremists.

The government charged and imprisoned the perpetrators and launched an official inquiry and compensated the families of the victims. Despite the fact that the majority of the protesters demands were granted, the event led to an escalation of the insurgency.

June 1977: Sabilillah (Path of God) bombed Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok. In the aftermath of the bombing Sabilillah vanished into obscurity.

September 1977: Black December 1902 members threw a bomb into a Thai royal ceremony. Five persons were killed and 47 wounded. The royal family managed to escape unharmed.

1977: Security forces killed BNPP leader Tunku Yala Nasae.

* Renewed agitation began in the 1990s, led by Malay intellectuals influenced by revolutionary and Islamist ideas from the Middle East. The BRN split into three rival factions, of which the most militant were the BRN Coordinate and the BRN Congress. The BRN Congress is regarded as the most active group, but there are several others, and competition between these militant groups has helped fuel the insurgency. It is believed that there is now a co-ordinating body called the Patani United Liberation Organisation (Dewan Pembebasan Pattani or PULO), although little is known about the composition or leadership of the various groups.

1993: The New PULO, a dissident faction of the original PULO, was established by Arrong Moo-reng and Hayi Abdul Rohman Bazo.

1995: Nasoree Saesang founded the GMIP.

August 1996: Thirty-six schools were torched in Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat allegedly by members of the New PULO faction, reportedly a dissident faction of the original PULO established by Arrong Moo-reng and Hayi Abdul Rohman Bazo. The Thai Interior Ministry and Thai Military Intelligence reported that New PULO used unemployed youth and young drug addicts to carry out its terrorist missions.Rohan Gunaratna & Arabinda Acharya, ''The Terrorist Threat from Thailand: Jihad Or Quest for Justice?''

1997: Members of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN), PULO and the New PULO established Bersatu, also known as the Patani Malays People's Consultative Council, to improve co-ordination between rebel factions.

August 1997: Bersatu launched an operation code named "Falling Leaves". Between August 1997 and January 1998, 33 separate attacks took place resulting in nine deaths.

January 1998: Malaysia and Thailand launched a joint operation code named "Pitak Tai" to crack down on insurgent outfits. Malaysian authorities arrested New PULO's leader, Abdul Rohman Bazo, its military chief, Haji Daoh Thanam, and Bazo's senior assistant, Haji Mae Yala in Kedah, as well as PULO's military commander, Haji Sama-ae Thanam, in Kuala Lumpur, later handing them to Thai authorities. The Thai government also encouraged local people to monitor the movements of drug traffickers and, as a result, the tough policy on drugs deprived PULO of recruits for its acts of terror.

1999–2002

* Following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States, leaflets calling for Holy War and support for Osama bin Laden were distributed in Yala by militants.

24 December 2001: Insurgents launched a number of attacks on police posts in the three provinces. Five police and one defence volunteer were killed.

* The Thai National Intelligence Agency estimated that fewer than 1,000 armed militants were taking part in the conflict as of 2001. In that year, the Thai Ministry of Interior estimated that 50 insurgency-related incidents had occurred. By 2002, 75 insurgency-linked attacks had killed 50 police and army personnel.

2003

* In 2003, officials counted 149 incidents. The mounting scale and sophistication of the insurgency eventually prompted the government into a recognition that there was a serious issue in the southern provinces.

2004

4 January: An escalation of the violence in the southern border provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat is reckoned to have begun on 4 January 2004 with the raiding of a Thai Army depot. Unidentified gunmen raided an army ammunition depot in Narathiwat Province in the early morning, and made off with over 400 rifles and ammunition.

5 January: Two policemen were killed while attempting to defuse a bomb outside a shopping mall in Pattani. A third policeman was injured in bomb blast that occurred in a nearby park. Two more bombs were successfully defused in nearby areas. Prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra declared martial law in the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala.

22 January: Rebels killed a Buddhist monk.

12 March: Somchai Neelapaijit, a Thai-Muslim lawyer and human rights activist, was abducted in Ramkhamhaeng, Bangkok. He represented Muslim defendants, who said they had been tortured, in terrorism cases. He was never seen again.

28 March: A bomb planted by insurgents injured 29 people, including 10 Malaysian tourists.

30 March: Masked men raided a quarry in the Yala District, stealing a total of 1.6 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, 56 sticks of dynamite, and 176 detonators.

23 April: Militants killed an army officer and set fire to 50 public buildings in all 13 districts of Narathiwat Province.

28 April: Militants launched a string of attacks on armouries and army positions in Pattani, Yala, and Songkhla. One-hundred eight rebels were killed in the aftermath of the attacks.

10 June: Militants killed a security guard outside a government school and seized weapons from other security personnel who were inside.

25 October: Seventy-eight persons were killed by Thai police in the aftermath of a riot over the detentions of Muslims suspected of giving weapons to Islamic separatists. Over 1,300 people were detained in the incident.

28 October: An IED detonated outside a bar, killing two persons and injuring 21.

2 November: A Buddhist official was beheaded by suspected Muslim insurgents.

4 November: Nine persons were killed including two police.

7 November: The Defence Minister of Thailand said that there had been more than 700 casualties in south Thailand since the unrest began in January. Many murders involved shooting and decapitation. During 2004, insurgents began to sow fear in attacks by beheading Buddhists.

13 November: One man was killed and at least 13 people injured when five bomb blasts occurred in various parts of the region.

5 December: Thailand airdropped nearly 100 million origami cranes over the southern regions of the country in an effort to bring peace. Militants respond with series of bombings the following day.

* A total of 400 people were killed in over 1,000 incidents during 2004.

2005

17 February: A bomb exploded near a tourist hotel in the town of Sungai Kolok, killing five persons and wounding over 40. Four persons were killed in other incidents.

3 April: A series of bomb attacks in Songkhla killed two people and leaving 66 injured. The bombings marked the beginning of attacks against ethnic Thai–Chinese–owned businesses who were considered Thaksin supporters and against southern Thailand independence as a Muslim state.

14 July: A major attack was launched on the provincial capital of Yala city. Sixty militants targeted an area near a hotel, the railway station, two convenience stores and a restaurant roaming the streets using guns, fire-bombs, and explosives.

18 July: Two militants entered a teashop, shot Lek Pongpla, a Buddhist cloth vendor, beheaded him and left the head outside of the shop.

19 July: The Thai Prime Minister enacted the "emergency powers law" to manage the three troubled states giving himself sweeping powers to direct military operations, suspend civil liberties, and censor the press. Several human rights organisations and local press expressed their concerns that these new powers might be used to violate civil liberty rights. However, the emergency decree was highly popular, with 72 percent of Bangkok residents and 86 percent of people in the three southern provinces supporting it. Nevertheless, the insurgency escalated further.

31 August: Three bombs exploded almost simultaneously. Subsequently, 131 civilians from the south fled to neighbouring Malaysia seeking refuge from the Thai authorities. Thailand immediately accused the refugees of being insurgents and demanded that they be returned, sparking a diplomatic spat. Currently, the people are still in Malaysia. Thailand, suspecting that insurgents may also have fled with the refugees, has asked Malaysia to return these Thai citizens but Malaysia has refused on humanitarian grounds.

16 October: A group of 20 separatists attacked a Buddhist monastery, killing three. An extended state of emergency was announced in the three southern provinces plagued by the insurgency. The announcement sparked a large scale guerrilla raid on 60 targets, in which at least seven persons were killed and 90 weapons were stolen.

16 November: Separatists killed nine civilians and injured nine others.

* A total of 500 people were killed during 2005.

2006

* A brief lull in the insurgency followed the 19 September 2006 coup that overthrew the government of Premier Thaksin Shinawatra. As the Muslim Army Commander Sonthi Boonyaratkalin settled into his role as head of the junta, violence resumed. , more than 1,400 people had died in less than three years of southern violence. Most were innocent bystanders, both Buddhists and Muslims.

7 January: Four suspected militants fatally shot two border-police at a weekend market in Yala Province. Three others were killed in separate attacks on the same day.

10 May: A bomb exploded at a tea shop killing at least three persons and injuring more than a dozen.

15 June: During the 60th anniversary of the accession of Bhumibol Adulyadej to the Thai throne, well-coordinated bomb-attacks against at least 40 government and official buildings occurred. Two police officials died and 11 others were injured. Experts say that the bomb attacks were a message to the Thai authorities, rather than an attempt to do real damage, as the bombs were loaded with small amounts of explosives. Had the devices been larger, the casualties and injuries would have been notably greater. The Thai media was late in reporting the incident, only doing so after the BBC
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