The bomb that exploded to coincide with the visit of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s visit to the southern Muslim-majority provinces of Thailand last week was homemade and, according to officials, triggered by a mobile phone. This increasingly common tactic suggests that at least some elements of Thailand’s wave of terrorism violence since January 2004 have been learning lessons from the regional terrorism hegemon, Jemaah Islamiya . Nonetheless, since no particular credible individual or group has yet stepped forward to provide the political message/propaganda/rationale for the unrest, questions about the movement’s origins and goals as well as counter-insurgency tactics and strategies linger.

Public estimates suggest the number of fatalities across the Narathiwat, Pattani, Songhkla, and Yala border and otherwise nearby Malaysia have topped 950 since the first raid against an army depot 21 months ago that killed four soldiers and led to the loss of over 400 guns . Other government facilities such as police stations and public schools continue to be common targets of Islamic militants, apparently lashing out against the government. What in decades past had been a regional movement for autonomy or separatism from the Buddhist-majority Thai state has now become infused with a radicalized conservative Islamic character evident by attacks against secular and moderate individuals, groups, and institutions when they apparently stray from more orthodox practices around weekly and annual religious observances.