Sadly, police in Hat Yai this morning confirmed the explosion at Lee Gardens Plaza and Lee Garden Hotel in downtown Hat Yai on Saturday afternoon was indeed the result of a car bomb. They believe a car loaded with explosives was parked in the underground parking lot underneath the hotel and shopping mall and then detonated. The resulting blast killed five people, four men and a woman, and injured almost 350 others,both in the shopping mall and hotel.
Bomb fragments have not been found in the Hat Yai bombing yet, nor have authorities been able to link it with the three Yala car and motorbike bombings, but officials believe both were set by Muslim insurgents. Insurgent activity in Thailand’s south has been increasing in the last year, but these two attacks are by far the worst in at least the last 12 months. All told, 14 people died in the two bombings, 9 in Yala and 5 in Hat Yai, and more than 450 were injured.
Lee Garden Hotel is a five-star hotel and one of the most popular hotels in Hat Yai. As for Lee Gardens Plaza shopping mall, it’s the biggest mall in Hat Yai with hundreds of stores and restaurants. Today, both are closed.
Here at Tasty Thailand, we wonder what bombers think they are going to achieve with these disgusting acts? Killing innocent people, who have nothing to do with the separatist movement or with the Thai government, and for what? To get support for their cause?
Seriously, anyone who has morals who might at one time have supported the separatist cause doesn’t now. There’s nothing to support in a loose organization of thugs who think murdering innocent people is ethical and moral and will cause them to get what they want. It won’t. And you are nothing more than murderers.