YALA, May 12 — Centres of economic activities are being targeted for bombing and violence in southern Thailand to show the government is powerless at protecting the people.

Southern Thailand Fourth Army Commander Lieutenant-General Valid Rothchanapakdee said the people would suffer if the economy plunged in the targeted areas.

“As such, their aim in targeting the economy is to show that the government cannot protect the people,” he said, reacting to the bombings in Yala and Narathiwat between last night and this morning, whereby dozens of bombs were detonated.

He said immediate action in such a situation was to pay compensation to the victims, find the perpetrators and charge them in court.

Commercial premises, schools and hospitals are among the targets of the planned bombings with have resulted in one death and nine injured.

A fire department officer, Naris Yusof, said fire broke out because the bombs were placed among fuel-based products.

He said three fire engines were dispatched to put out a fire in Sungai Padi but only one reached the scene as the other two were blocked by terrorists.

He said there was also an attempt to burn a fire station but it failed.

In the Yala region, 13 incidents involving attacks on commercial premises

and schools took place. Ten of them involved the use of bombs which were detonated.

In Narathiwat, 12 bombs were detonated and two schools razed. In Sungai Golok, eight bombs exploded while eight others were defused. Four bombs went off in the town of Takbai.

Villagers looks at the site of a bomb attack, in the southern Narathiwat province May 12, 2014. — Reuters pic

About 3am today, a bomb atack was also carried out in Bandar Sungai Golok bordering Rantau Panjang, Kelantan, which targeted shopping centres.

In Sungai Padi, two fires broke out when two bombs exploded. There, two government schools were torched while two stores were bombed. — Bernama