A Myanmar migrant worker was beheaded in Thai southern province Pattani Thursday, and suspected militants remotely detonate a bomb targeted at the police who responded to the scene but hurt none, Thai News Agency reported Friday.

The head of the decapitated victim was found on a roadside in Nong Chik district, Pattani. A remote controlled bomb was activated when the police arrived at the scene, but no one was wounded.

According to investigators, the 40-year-old Myanmar worker was shot dead and beheaded in the presence of his daughter on Thursday, but her hands were bound and she was blindfolded, so she did not actually witness the killing and the beheading. The daughter was otherwise unharmed.

In nearby Yala province, a bomb exploded on Friday morning in a market of Than To district, wounding a soldier who was on duty patrolling the area. Police investigators said that the bomb targeted soldiers who usually patrol the market.

Also in Yala, a factory worker was killed in a drive-by shooting in the provincial seat on Thursday. The victim was shot five times at point-blank range by a motorcycle-mounted gunman, and died immediately at the scene.

The authorities believe that the shooting was related to the insurgency and that it was done by locals.

The insurgent violence has claimed over 1,700 lives in the deep south, mostly in the three southernmost provinces Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, since it resumed in January 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2006 )