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Bomb blasts in Thailand blamed on new breakaway Muslim group

The Thai Army says that two bomb attacks in the south of the country at the weekend were the work of a new group of Muslim separatist terrorists.

From Bangkok, Geoff Thompson reports the blast killed a child and injured scores of people.

One bomb killed a young boy and injured 42 others when it exploded in a busy railway station in the southern Thailand city of Hatyai on Saturday. The other bomb exploded later in a hotel carpark in the town of Betong near the Malaysian border, injuring five people. Thai intelligence agencies believe the attacks are the work of a new breakaway group called Bersatu made up of renegade members of two known Thai separatist movements, the Pattani Liberation Organisation and the Barisan Revolusi Nasional. The Pattani group was formed in 1968 and has twice before bombed the Hatyai train station. A 1992 explosion killed two people and injured 75. The Separatists demand independence for a predominantly Muslim region bordering Malaysia in southern Thailand.

9/04/01 17:08:12 | ABC Radio Australia News

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