Father and daughter die in blast in Thai south

By CS Thana

BANGKOK (AA) - Two people died early Tuesday when a motorcycle bomb exploded opposite an elementary school in Thailand's troubled south.

A spokesman for Internal Security Operations Command told reporters that the blast killed a father and his five-year-old daughter.

"This is the work of evil people who want to create a situation," said Pramote Krome-in, from the unit of the military devoted to national security.

The explosion occurred at 8 a.m. (0100GMT) as families dropped their children off at the school in Narathiwat province.

Narathiwat is one of three majority Malay Muslim provinces in the south wracked by insurgency.

Regular bomb attacks and drive-by shootings occur in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, where more than 7,000 people have been killed since January 2004 when an insurgency dormant for years reignited.