Pattani, Thailand News

Flooding is hitting the deep South following several days of heavy rains, with six people drowning and hundreds of thousands of villagers in seven provinces affected.

Pheu Thai Party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh on Tuesday began his visit to the Deep South even though his proposal for granting a form of self-rule, dubbed Nakhon Rat Pattani, drew a flak.

Nearly three-quarters of the people surveyed by Suan Dusit Poll were against the idea of establishing a semi-autonomous a oeNakhon Pattania in the far South, as proposed by opposition Puea Thai Party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has told parliament that the government disagreed with the idea of establishing autonomous areas in lower South, as it was not a solution to the problem.

Puea Thai Party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh has defended his proposed "Pattani City" model for the strife-torn southern border provinces.

Suspected Muslim insurgents shot and killed two Buddhist civilians in separate drive-by attacks in Thailand's insurgency-plagued south, police said Wednesday.

Thailand is a single state and cannot be divided, so it was not possible to allow the three southernmost provinces to become autonomous areas, Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said on Tuesday.

The government is twisting and misrepresenting the proposal for a self-governing Pattani City in the far South as a step towards ending the insurgency, Puea Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit complained on Tuesday.

Suspected Islamist insurgents shot dead five Muslims, mostly civilians, in a new spate of attacks across the troubled south of Thailand, police said Tuesday.

Puea Thai Party chairman Chavalit Yongchaiyudh's idea for an autonomous Pattani City was unlikely to end the continuing violence in the deep South, Yala Mayor Pongsak Yingchoncharoen said on Tuesday.

The State Railway of Thailand labour union reiterated on Monday that safety must be fully ensured before train services to three southern border provinces can resume.

Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, the Puea Thai Party chairman, will make a visit to Pattani province on Nov 3 to meet Muslim leaders and explore ways of solving insurgency problems, Puea Thai MP Paijit Sriworakhan said on Friday.

In response, Abhisit said: "That's the right approach. "My government is working to make it materialise and in early December I and my Malaysian counterpart will visit the southern region," he told reporters.

More than 100 armed railway police and security volunteers have released a train held at Hat Yai station by State Railway of Thailand unionists.

Thailand is open to the idea that Malaysian firms own a stake in Islamic Bank of Thailand to help provide Islamic banking especially to people in southern Thailand.

The cabinet on Tuesday approved the Transport Ministry's proposal to amend a ministry regulation to allow student drivers at the railway engineering school and retired staff to stand in for striking train drivers.

PATTANI : A woman has been killed and two men wounded in an ambush by suspected insurgents in Yarang district.

The Cabinet yesterday extended for another three months an emergency decree for the three southern border provinces, which have been hit by insurgency-related violence.

The cabinet on Tuesday approved the imposition of the Internal Security Act in Bangkok's Dusit district from Oct 15 to Oct 25, National Security Council secretary-general Thawil Pliansri said.

Pattani Bay boasts one of the richest mangrove forests in the South of Thailand, but it is also in danger of environmental degradation.