Suspected Islamic militants behead husband, wife in south Thailand

Bangkok, Jan 14 (UNI) Suspected Islamic militants shot dead and then beheaded a married couple in Thailand's southern province of Yala this morning.

The 39-year-old man and his 35-year-old wife were shot at while riding a motorcycle on their way back from their rubber plantation.

Their severed heads were found in a village in Yala's Muang district a short distance from the bodies.

Some 2,000 people have been killed so far in violence unleashed by Islamic separatists in Thailand's three southern Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani since January 2004.

Yesterday, suspected militants shot dead a police officer in Pattani and a fire-fighter in Yala.

Two days ago, suspected militants detonated a bomb hidden beneath a pickup truck inside an army centre in Pattani which is also the base of the multi-agency Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre.

UNI