BANGKOK – Three Thai soldiers were gunned down in front of terrified shoppers at busy evening market in Thailand’s conflict-riddled ‘Deep South’, police said Friday, in a day of of bloodshed undermining progress in peace talks.

An under-reported 13-year rebellion in the southernmost provinces by Malay Muslim insurgents against the Buddhist-majority Thai state has killed more than 6,800 people.

That toll rose late Thursday when gunman opened fire on the trio of plainclothes soldiers as they patrolled a night market in Mayo district of Pattani province.

“They were shot by seven or eight gunmen,” Captain Muhamad Maadwang of Mayo police station told AFP.

“They had no chance to fire back, all of them were shot dead at scene,” he said, adding that militants were suspected of carrying out the attack.

A $14,000 (S$19,800) bounty has been offered for the arrest of the gunmen, local media reported.

Around the same time a 44-year-old Muslim man was killed in the same district in a drive-by shooting, police said.

Earlier in the day a family of four – including an eight-year-old boy – were gunned down early on a remote road as they drove to school, an attack that brought widespread condemnation.

Insurgents, who operate in tight and secretive cells, rarely claim their attacks.

But they are often carried out in retaliation for specific security crackdowns or at pivot points in peace talks.

The timing of the market shooting of the soldiers carried insurgents’ hallmarks.

Thursday’s violence comes days after the Thai army and the Mara Patani, an umbrella group representing some rebel factions at peace talks, agreed to create a limited ‘safety zone’ in the region.

The deal, tantamount to a highly localised ceasefire, was a small but rare step forward in years of stuttering talks.

But analysts have played down the significance of the ‘safety zone’ announcement, casting doubt on the Mara’s control over the main rebel footsoldiers.

The surge in violence may point to dissatisfaction from the insurgents with the safety zone deal.

The Malay Muslim majority deep south was colonised by Thailand over a century ago.

Locals accuse Thailand of steam rolling their unique identity and culture as well as rights abuses.

SURKHET, NEPAL – The small thatched hut in western Nepal has no walls to keep out the cold.

Inside is a raised platform where Pabrita Giri sleeps during her period, banished from her home by a centuries-old Hindu ritual.

Below the hut, known as a chhau goth, Giri lights a small fire to keep her warm.

The smoke rises up to the small cramped area where she sleeps, making her eyes water.

“We think that if we don’t follow chhaupadi bad things will happen and if we do, it (the gods) will favour us. I feel it does good, so I follow it during my periods,” Giri, 23, explained.

“Now I am used to it. I used to be afraid in the beginning because I was away from my family during dark nights and the place is like this,” Giri said gesturing around her.

The practice is linked to Hinduism and considers women untouchable when they menstruate.

They are banished from the home – barred from touching food, religious icons, cattle and men – and forced into a monthly exile sleeping in basic huts.

In some areas, women are also made to spend up to a month in the chhau goth after they have given birth.

Two women recently died while following chhaupadi – one of smoke inhalation after she lit a fire for warmth, while the other death is unexplained.

These incidents have spurred fresh impetus to end the practice.

Chhaupadi was banned a decade ago, but new legislation currently before parliament will criminalise the practice, making it an imprisonable offence to force a women to follow the ritual.

“Women were accepting chhaupadi as tradition. After defining chhaupadi an offence by law the tradition will be discouraged saving rights and lives of many women,” Krishna Bhakta Pokhrel, a lawmaker pushing the bill, told AFP.

But previous attempts to stop chhaupadi have failed to address the deep superstitious beliefs that underpin it.

Even in the capital Kathmandu, three in four homes practise some form of restriction on women during their periods, usually banning them from the kitchen and prayer room, said Pema Lhaki, a women’s right activist who has campaigned for years to end chhaupadi.

Most attempts to end the ritual have focused on destroying the chhau goths but that hasn’t stopped women being banned from their homes – instead, in some areas, it has seen women forced to sleep in even more rudimentary huts or even outside, Lhaki said.

“Until we make the woman herself make the decision, the destruction of menstrual huts is more for external purposes. The menstrual huts should remain. Success is when they remain but they don’t go into them,” she said, accusing the government of encouraging the chhau goth to be destroyed to meet quotas set by international donors.

In a village a few miles from where Giri lives, Khagisara Regmi is considering building a chhau goth.

After her husband died eight years ago, the 40-year-old found it too difficult to follow chhaupadi – which would bar her from cooking or touching her son when she was menstruating – while bringing up her four young children.

But a few years ago, her only son started having fits.

When a nearby hospital failed to cure them, Regmi turned to the local shaman who told her that her son’s seizures where because she hadn’t followed the ancient ritual.

“Because I didn’t observe purity the gods were displeased. It wasn’t favourable for my son,” she said.

It is often the village shamans – who fill a void left by woefully poor medical services in rural Nepal – and the elderly who are the guardians of the ritual.

Sabitra Giri, 70, defiantly told AFP that the Maoists during Nepal’s brutal civil war tried to end chhaupadi as part of an anti-religion drive – but failed.

“You can cut me but while I’m alive this practice will continue,” she said.

At a house on the edge of the village, shaman Keshar Giri, clad head to toe in white, explained that many illnesses were caused by women not following chhaupadi.

He often counselled women to follow the ritual if they came to him with problems, he said.

“It is not about individuals but the gods that we worship who ask women to not be near for those few days,” he said.

“Its for the sake of the gods.”

For decades Wahhabism, the strict strain of Islam that promotes a literal interpretation of the Quran, has been Saudi Arabia’s predominant faith, and since the 1970s the oil-rich kingdom has been generous in sending funds to other Muslim countries to promote this conservative version of Islam.

Now that Wahhabism has been linked with radicalism and even terrorism, the Saudi government has stepped up its campaign to counter that perception and the state visit of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to Indonesia, where religious conservatism has gained ground alongside frequent terrorist attacks, was part of the public relations campaign.

After dealing with business on the first day of his visit, King Salman on Thursday kicked off his charm offensive in a speech during a 30-minute special session at the House of Representatives, calling for a united front to deal with what he termed “a clash of civilizations” and terrorism.

“The challenges that the Muslim community and the world in general faces, like terrorism and the clash of civilizations and the lack of respect for a country’s sovalso ereignty, require us to unite in dealing with these challenges,” the monarch said in his two-minute speech, which was interrupted by rounds of applause from members of the House and guests, including former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and former vice president Try Sutrisno.

Later in his meetings with leaders of the country’s major Islamic organisations, the octogenarian king promoted a tolerant version of Islam as the key in the fight against terrorism and radicalism.

Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifudin, who had organised the meeting, said Indonesia and Saudi Arabia agreed to promote a moderate version of Islam.

“The two countries have come to an understanding that we would prioritize the promotion of Islam as rahmatan lil alamin [blessing for the universe]. What is needed to maintain the stability of global civilisation is the moderation of Islam,” said Lukman, who joined the 30-minute session at the State Palace on Wednesday. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo attended.

During the session, three Muslim scholars were given the chance to speak directly to the monarch, including Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Maruf Amin, who issued an edict last year calling for the prosecution of Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahja Purnama for allegedly insulting the Quran.

Earlier on Wednesday, King Salman and President Jokowi witnessed the signing of 11 agreements, including one addressing the issue of transnational crimes and global extremism, radicalism and terrorism.

To further bolster its counterterrorism campaign, the Saudi government offered free haj trips for family members of personnel of the National Police’s counterterrorism squad Densus 88 who were killed while on duty.

To further burnish his credentials as a promoter of moderate Islam, King Salman is expected to hold an interfaith forum on Friday, shortly before departing for Brunei Darussalam.

Despite the visiting monarch’s pledge to join efforts to counter radicalism, the Saudi government continues to promote its conservative brand of Islam.

Read Also: Saudi king visits Indonesia bringing along 1,000-people entourage, limos, escalators

Saudi Arabia is likely to step up its campaign to spread its version of Islam as it plans to open new campuses of the Saudi-funded Islamic and Arabic College of Indonesia (LIPIA) in Makassar, Surabaya and Medan.

Currently, LIPIA only has a campus in Jakarta.

Students studying at LIPIA will pay no tuition fees, as they receive Saudi-funded scholarships.

Students will also receive a monthly stipend while studying at the institute.

The college is known for graduating students ingrained with the conservative strain of Islam, including convicted terrorist Aman Abdurrahman, who has been known for his efforts to spread Islamic State (IS) movement propaganda.

Alongside the Indonesian Society for the Propagation of Islam (DDII), LIPIA has been the primary beneficiary of Saudi funding in the country.

Read Also: Saudi King Salman embraces ‘selfie’ on tour across Asia

Human rights groups have expressed concerns that conservative clerics in the country are promoting an agenda that conforms with the ideals of Wahabbism, including the call for the persecution of minority Muslim groups like Shiites and Ahmadiyah members.

In Malaysia, where the visiting Saudi monarch agreed to invest US$7 billion in an oil refinery, the daughter of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Marina Mohamad, lashed out against what she called Arab colonialism.

President Rodrigo Duterte visited his ninth grandchild, his first as the country’s Chief Executive.

On Thursday evening, Presidential Assistant Christopher “Bong” Go shared Facebook photos of the Duterte visiting his newborn grandson, Marko Digong “Stonefish” Carpio, at the Davao Doctors Hospital.

Stonefish, weighing 2.42 kilograms after he was born through cesarean section, is the third child of Davao City Mayor Inday Sara Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio. The couple has two other children-an adopted daughter named Mikhaila Maria “Sharky,” 8, and a son named Mateo Lucas “Stingray,” 4, from in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

The city chief executive, the eldest of Duterte’s two daughters, announced last July that she was expecting triplets through another IVF procedure. However, weeks after her announcement, she said that her twins passed away due to miscarriage.

As a result, she had to tone down her physical activities and avoid crowded places.

Read also: Why Duterte’s new grandson is named Stonefish

“When I went for a checkup last Monday, the doctor said the identical twins didn’t have heartbeats anymore,” Inday Sara told reporters back in September.