Massacre of children in Thailand in a knife and gun rampage, condolences pour in

It was a sad day for Thailand when a former police sergeant, discharged over drug allegations, shot and knifed children and staff in a daycare center. The assailant targeted the children, aged between two and five. He slashed them to death, and shot the adults. It happens to be one of the world's worst death tolls of children massacred by a single killer. The killer was facing trial on a drugs charge. The tragedy happened in Uthai Sawan, a town about 310 miles northeast of Bangkok, the capital of the largely Buddhist country. After committing the massacre, he left the daycare centre, went home and shot dead his wife and son before taking his own life. Families traumatised by Thailand attack cling to slain children's toys. The national police chief Damrongsak Kittipraphat said - "The reasons are probably unemployment, no money, and family issues," he said, adding that the attacker and his wife had had "longstanding problems."

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha met the families of the victims. He lay flowers and observed a moment of silence in front of the centre. King Maha also Vajiralongkorn visited the hospital. The Vatican said Pope Francis was deeply saddened by the "horrific attack." He condemned it as an "act of unspeakable violence against innocent children." Incidentally, there have been earlier instances of death in schools in other parts of the world. In Norway in 2011, Anders Breivik killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a summer camp. Later, in 2012, it was the killing of 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown Connecticut. In 1996, the toll as of 16 at Dunblane in Scotland and 19 at a school in Uvalde, Texas, this year. As far as Thailand goes, it has strict gun laws but gun ownership is high when compared with some Southeast Asian countries. Moreover, illegal weapons are common, with many brought in from strife-torn neighbours.

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Dozens of corpses found in bamboo cages in Thai human trafficking camp

#massgrave #thailand #bangladesh #immigrants #rohingya It was a mass grave in southern Thailand from which 26 dead bodies have been recovered – the site is near to a human trafficking camp deep inside the jungle as reported in dailymial.co.uk dated 2 May 2015.

From initial findings, it is believed that these decaying corpses are of illegal migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh. They had been brought in to the country via vast trafficking networks which are 'out of control'. It seems the numbers could be over 30 people and they are apparently buried in shallow graves at the chilling site in Songkhla province, just 300 meters from Malaysia.
How they died is still a mystery but as per the Thai police chief, the victims met a 'violent death'. The Sadao district is where they were kept prisoners and this is a known stop-off for traffickers. The reason is simple – they can remain under cover in the remote woodland before taking their captives across the border and beyond.
The traffickers would keep their victims captives in cages until they received the money for their transport across the border – if the money was not received, the victims would be left to die in the cages. These were illegal immigrants, mostly Rohingya Muslims, and they undertook the dangerous journey by sea to escape religious persecution at home and find jobs in Malaysia and Thailand.

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