Security alert on Islamic separatist anniversary

Bangkok, Mar 13 (UNI) Security has been stepped up across Thailand in anticipation of likely strikes by Islamic militants on the annual founding week of the largest separatist outfit in the country's Muslim-majority south.

Four thousand security check points and hundreds of TV surveillance cameras have been installed in different locations across the country, though mainly in the three troubled border provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani.

Army Chief Sonthi Boonyaratakalin who heads Thailand's all-powerful post-coup Council for National Security (CNS), however, dismissed reports that southern Thai Islamic militants were planning terror strikes in Bangkok on the occasion this week.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since the resurgence of Islamic separatist violence in south Thailand three years ago.

This week marks the 44th anniversary of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) or National Revolution Front said to be the largest Malay Muslim separatist organisation in Thailand.

The separatist demand is rooted in the century-old division of the former Muslim sultanate of Pattani between Malaysia and Thailand by British colonial rulers.

UNI