Terrorism in Thailand

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Incidents of terrorism in Thailand are mostly related to the South Thailand insurgency, which has been going on for decades. Sporadic incidents have also occurred elsewhere (mostly in Bangkok), although such events are much less common.

List of notable terrorist incidents

External sources

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Pattani Province Province of Thailand

Pattani is one of the southern provinces of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Narathiwat, Yala, and Songkhla.

Songkhla Province Province of Thailand

Songkhla is one of the southern provinces (changwat) of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are Satun, Phatthalung, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Pattani, and Yala. To the south it borders Kedah and Perlis of Malaysia.

Hat Yai International Airport airport

Hat Yai International Airport is an international airport in southern Thailand in Songkhla Province near the city of Hat Yai. It is under the management of Airports of Thailand, PLC (AOT). Annually, it handles more than 1,500,000 passengers, 9,500 flights and 12,000 tons of cargo. Expansion plans are in the works, as the airport is designed for 2.5 million passengers, was already seeing 3.56 million using it in Sept 2015, will be expanded to 4.5 million capacity scheduled complete by 2018, and 10 million by 2030.

Songkhla City in Thailand

Songkhla, also known as Singgora or Singora, is a city in Songkhla Province of southern Thailand, near the border with Malaysia. As of 2006 it had a population of 75,048. Songkhla lies 968 km (601 mi) south of Bangkok.

Prem Tinsulanonda Prime Minister of Thailand

Prem Tinsulanonda was a Thai military officer, politician, and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Thailand from 3 March 1980 to 4 August 1988, during which time he was credited with ending a communist insurgency and presiding over accelerating economic growth. As president of the Privy Council, he served as Regent of Thailand from the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on 13 October 2016, until the 1 December 2016 proclamation of Vajiralongkorn as King. At the age of 98, Prem was the longest-living Thai Prime Minister.

South Thailand insurgency

The South Thailand insurgency is an ongoing conflict centered in southern Thailand. It originated in 1948 as an ethnic and religious separatist insurgency in the historical Malay Patani Region, made up of the three southernmost provinces of Thailand and parts of a fourth, but has become more complex and increasingly violent since the early 2000s from drug cartels, oil smuggling networks, and sometimes pirate raids.

The 2005 Songkhla bombings were a series of three bombings that took place on 3 April 2005 in the cities of Hat Yai and Songkhla of Thailand's Songkhla Province. They and are believed to be part of the ongoing south Thailand insurgency. At least two people were killed and 66 were injured in the explosions.

Internal Security Operations Command

The Internal Security Operations Command or ISOC is the political arm of the Thai military. It was responsible for suppression of leftist groups from the 1960s to the 1980s during period it was implicated in atrocities against activists and civilians. ISOC was implicated in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. After Thaksin was deposed in a military coup, the junta transformed the ISOC into a "government within a government", giving it wide-reaching authority over the National Anti-Corruption Commission, the Department of Special Investigation, and the Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO). The junta also authorized it to help provincial authorities in marketing OTOP products. In June 2007, the junta approved a draft national security bill which gave ISOC sweeping powers to handle "new forms of threats" to the country. The ISOC revamp modelled it after the US Department of Homeland Security, and gave ISOC sweeping new powers to allow the ISOC chief to implement security measures such as searches without seeking approval from the prime minister.

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. The attacks were similar to the 2005 Songkhla bombings.

Sonthi Boonyaratglin Thai military leader

Sonthi Boonyaratglin is a Thai former Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Thai Army and former head of the Council for National Security, the military junta that ruled the kingdom, of Iranian descent. He was the first Muslim in charge of the army of the mostly Buddhist country. On 19 September 2006, he became the de facto head of government of Thailand after overthrowing the elected government in a coup d'état. After retiring from the Army in 2007, he became Deputy Prime Minister, in charge of national security.

2006 Bangkok bombings

The 2006 Bangkok bombings occurred on 31 December 2006 and 1 January 2007, during New Year's Eve festivities in Bangkok, Thailand. Four explosions went off almost simultaneously in different parts of the city at around 18:00 local time, followed by several more explosions within the next 90 minutes. Two explosions also occurred after midnight. In total, eight explosions were reported during the night.

The 2007 South Thailand bombings were a series of bombings that hit Narathiwat, Pattani, Songkhla and Yala during the Chinese New Year celebrations on 18 and 19 February. At least seven people were killed. The bombings were the first time the rebels had simultaneously struck all four southern provinces. The attacks on Sunday and early Monday targeted mostly residential and business establishments owned by Buddhists or ethnic Chinese.

In Myanmar, terrorism is defined by the country's counter-terrorism law and its subsections, which is interpreted by the Anti-Terrorism Central Committee and enforced by the government of Myanmar. Two groups are currently listed as terrorist organisations in accordance to Myanmar's counter-terrorism law; the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which was added on 25 August 2017, and the Arakan Army, which was added on 18 January 2019. The SPDC military government labeled the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors (VBSW) a terrorist organisation after their role in the 1999 Myanmar Embassy siege, but the group was never officially declared as such by law.

The 2007 Songkhla bombings took place in Songkhla Province, Thailand on 27 and 28 May 2007, and are believed to be part of the ongoing south Thailand insurgency. At least four people were killed and 36 were injured.

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.

Hat Yai Junction railway station railway station in Thailand

Hat Yai Junction is an international railway junction and a Class 1 railway station for the State Railway of Thailand in the center of Hat Yai City, Songkhla Province, Thailand. The station is located 928.585 km (577.0 mi) from Bangkok's Thon Buri railway station and serves as a junction for the mainline Southern Line towards Pattani, Yala and Sungai Kolok and the Butterworth, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore Line. The station also includes a large locomotive depot adjacent to the station.

The 2014 Hat Yai Bombings happened on 6 May 2014, when three improvised explosive devices exploded roughly seven minutes apart in the heart of Hat Yai, Thailand in the afternoon, wounding at least eight people.

The Runda Kumpulan Kecil is a militant Islamic insurgent group operating in Southern Thailand.

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.

Chana railway station is a railway station located in Ban Na Subdistrict, Chana District, Songkhla. It is a class 1 railway station located 964.503 km (599.3 mi) from Thon Buri railway station.