One beheaded, two shot dead in troubled Thai south

A man was beheaded and two others shot dead by separatist militants in Thailand's violent south, police said.

A man was beheaded and two others shot dead by separatist militants in Thailand's violent south, police said on Saturday.

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Police found a 63-year-old Muslim villager beheaded in the Yarang district of Pattani province late on Friday evening.

In nearby Yala provincial town a 26-year-old ranger was shot dead while playing football with locals and a 28-year-old Muslim fruit trader was also shot dead as he ate dinner with his wife on Friday evening.

More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004 in the south, which was an autonomous Malay sultanate until Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.