Buddhist killed, burned in Thai Muslim south

An elderly Buddhist man is shot dead and his body set on fire in Thailand's restive south of Narathiwat.

An elderly Buddhist man was shot dead and his body set on fire in Thailand's restive south of Narathiwat, police said on Monday.

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Thongmee Mainman, 70, was attacked as he drove his motorbike home from a market in Narathiwat, one of three Muslim-majority southern provinces beset by a three-year separatist insurgency in which more than 2,000 people have been killed, they said.

"There must be more than four of them. After they set him on fire, they took his motorcycle too," local police chief Bunlue Chuweth said.

The attackers shot the man five times in the head and torso, before setting his body on fire on Sunday, Bunlue said.

Last week, a 26-year-old Buddhist woman was shot and burned alive in neighbouring Yala province, prompting angry protests in the only Muslim-majority region in overwhelmingly Buddhist Thailand.