A married couple were beheaded after they were shot dead by suspected Muslim insurgents in Thailand's southern border province of Yala on Sunday morning, police said.

The bodies of Ging Khachaging, 39, and his wife, Ruangrong Kaewkrai, 35, were found about three meters away from their heads in a village of Yala's Muang district, said police.

The couple were riding their motorcycle back from their rubber plantation when they were shot by insurgents. Each was shot three times on their body.

Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani are the three southern border provinces plagued with violence related to an ongoing insurgency which has claimed more than 1,900 lives since it resumed in early 2004. The violence was blamed on a complex web of Islamic separatists, local corruption and organized crime.

Source: Xinhua