By C.S. Thana

BANGKOK

At least four people were killed in Thailand's south in overnight bomb attacks that the army suspect were carried out by separatist insurgents.

Col. Banphot Phunphien of the Internal Security Operation Command told Anadolu Agency by phone Friday that four village defense volunteers were killed when a radio-controlled bomb exploded at a gathering point in an inland district of Pattani province.

"Two died at the scene and two more died in hospital," he said, adding that three more were injured in the blast and remain hospitalized. 

Phunphien also said there was a separate bombing in neighboring Narathiwat Province on Friday morning that injured two army personnel.

However, their injuries are not life-threatening and they should be discharged from hospital shortly.

The army, Phunphien added, suspect insurgents to be behind the bombings.

The southern insurgency is rooted in a century-old ethno-cultural conflict between Malay Muslims living in the provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat and some districts of Songhkla, and the Thai central state where Buddhism is de facto considered the national religion.

Armed groups were formed in the 1960s after the then-military dictatorship tried to interfere in Islamic schools. The Patani United Liberation Organization was the dominant rebel group until it faded away in the middle of the 1990s.

In 2004, a rejuvenated armed movement -- composed of numerous local cells of fighters loosely grouped around the Barisan Revolusi Nasional -- re-emerged. Since then, the conflict has killed 6,400 people and injured over 11,000, making it one of the deadliest low-intensity conflicts on the planet.

A peace dialogue had begun under the elected government of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2013, but was suspended in December that year due to political tensions in Bangkok.

The May 22, 2014 coup against Shinawatra’s government that brought the junta to power added more uncertainty to a possible peaceful solution to the conflict, despite the military expressing commitment to pursuing talks.