BANGKOK
Two Muslim separatists were killed and five others captured Friday in an early morning operation by security forces in Thailand's violence-plagued south.
Local officials told the Anadolu Agency that insurgent leader Rusdi Bresamae and one of his men lost their lives in a firefight when police and soldiers were shot at after surrounding a house in Koknot village in Pattani province at around 3.30 local time Friday (22.30 Turkish time Thursday).
The officials - who did not wish to be named as they were not authorized to speak to media - said they had received information that Bresamae, wanted in relation with several attacks, had been hiding in the building.
They added that five other insurgents were taken into custody.
The incident was a rare success for Thai security forces, which are under attack on an almost daily basis, and seem unable to quell the insurgency despite the presence of 60,000 military personnel and rangers in the region.
The provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, where 80 percent of the population is of Malay Muslim origin, have been facing a rejuvenated separatist insurgency since January 2004 that has seen more 6,000 people killed – mostly civilians - and at least 10,700 injured.
Thailand's military, who seized power May 22, have expressed a desire to restart a peace dialogue with insurgent leaders – an initiative first launched by the overthrown civilian government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
Progress, however, seems slow as no date for a meeting has been set, months after the junta’s announcement.
Officials said that the new dialogue would be held secretly, contrary to those under Yingluck’s government which were held in full view of the press.
The region was an independent sultanate until the 19th century and was only formally annexed by Buddhist-majority Siam (Thailand's previous name) under the terms of a 1909 Anglo Siamese agreement.
In the 1950s, a policy of forced assimilation provoked deep tensions between the central state and local Muslims, with the situation deteriorating in the 1960s when Thai leader Sarit Thanarat tried to control education in Islamic schools – triggering the formation of a separatist insurgency.
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