NARATHIWAT, THAILAND (BNO NEWS) -- A Muslim religious leader and his wife were killed on Monday, while three bombings wounded ten people in two separate locations in restive southern Thailand.

Thai News Agency MCOT reported that 49-year-old Imam Mama Samao and his wife were gunned down while riding their motorcycle to work at a rubber plantation in Narathiwat's Rangae district. Three assailants in an ambush shot at the couple, who was sent to a nearby hospital where they were pronounced dead.

Meanwhile, three bombings occurred overnight at two locations in Yala province, wounding one villager and nine officials. The first bombing occurred on a roadside near a rubber plantation in Raman district, wounding Sunthorn Maneesang who stepped on a mine beneath a rubber tree. When police responded to inspect the bomb site, another bomb exploded, injuring nine police and local government officials.

Another roadside bomb exploded at about the same time in the provincial seat. No one was wounded.

Since 2004, around 4,300 people have been killed in Thailand's southern regions of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, as local insurgent groups renewed their fighting efforts against the government. More than 7,000 people have been injured in violent incidents launched by separatist militants.

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