Group of Thai Muslims flees to Malaysia: report
KUALA LUMPUR - A group of 24 Muslims from Thailand's insurgency-plagued south have fled to Malaysia to espace alleged intimidation by the Thai military, a report said Sunday.
Fearing their safety, the group complained that they have been beaten and that their sons have been missing or detained since 2005, the Sunday Star newspaper said.The group from Narathiwat province arrived in Muslim-majority Malaysia's Rantau Panjang village on Saturday through an illegal crossing. A local immigration official told AFP he was not aware of their arrival. At least 2,000 people have been killed in separatist violence that has gripped three Muslim-majority provinces in southern Thailand since January 2004. A 55-year-old spokesman for the group of new arrivals said a bomb attack on a mosque in his village has made it difficult for Muslims to pray. "Last week after the bomb blast, which injured scores of my neighbours, Thai soldiers came and simply arrested the local youths," he said on condition of anonymity. He said that since the arrest, many youths were missing and some died after they were allegedly poisoned during detention. The group said they were not seeking political asylum in Malaysia, but wanted Malaysia to help stop the bloody violence. The latest incident follows the flight of 131 Muslims from southern Thailand in 2005. They are being held in a Malaysian immigration depot. Last December a second group of 20 Thai Muslims entered the country. Agence France-Presse
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