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BANGKOK, Feb 24 (AFP): Six people have been shot dead in a spate of attacks in Thailand's south, police said Thursday as the government stepped back from a controversial scheme to deny funding to Muslim villages seen as supporting insurgents.
The six were killed since Tuesday in the mainly Buddhist kingdom's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces, where an insurgency blamed by the government and analysts on Islamic separatists erupted a year ago.
Violence has surged since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's overwhelming reelection on February 6, and took a frightening new turn last week when insurgents detonated their first car bomb just hours after the prime minister ended a tour of the region.
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