Beheadings come to Thailand ....

at the hands of you-know-who.

Will Baxter writing at AsiaCatholicNews:
.... Burnings and beheadings strike fear in south Thailand.
The recent burning and beheading of female victims in Thailand’s southern Muslim provinces marks a renewed campaign of terror by insurgent groups, according to a Human Rights Watch statement released today.

At least three Thai Buddhist women have been killed and mutilated by insurgents since February, according to HRW.

“Southern insurgents are killing Buddhist women and spreading terror by beheading and burning their bodies,” Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW, said in the statement.

Such attacks are carried out for two reasons, said Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher on Thailand at HRW.

Attacks involving mutilation are intended to send a message of “terror” to scare Thai Buddhists into leaving Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces, or are carried out as “retaliation” for extrajudicial killings committed by Thai security forces, he said.

“Claims by separatist groups that they are retaliating against government abuses are no justification for attacks on civilians,” said Adams.

Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with IHS-Jane's, said that "the primary catalyst [for these mutilation killings] appears to be the killing of the three children in Bacho," referring to a February 3 attack allegedly committed by the army’s Taharn Pran paramilitary force that killed three ethnic Malay-Muslim brothers, ages 6 to 11, and wounded their parents in Narathiwat province’s Bacho district.
Less than 10 days later, on February 12, insurgents in Pattani province’s Yaring district shot dead Sayamol Sae Lim, 29, a female employee of Bangkok Bank, and burned her body. A message found at the scene which was addressed to army chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, said “Dear army chief, this is not the last body after the three brothers.”....