Pattani, Thailand News

A soldier was killed by a bomb and a Muslim civilian was shot dead in the latest violence in Thailanda s restive south, police said on Thursday.

Wednesday, 8 July 2009, 10:58 am Press Release: Asian Human Rights Commission Bangkok, Thailand no.

Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra narrowly escaped arrest in Kuala Lumpur, slipping out of his hotel ahead of police and flying to the Pacific Island country of Fiji, Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Sennian said in Pattani province on Monday.

More than 1,500 people have applied for non-commissioned police jobs in the strife-torn southern provinces on the first day of applications.

The army has beefed up security across the deep South to ensure that festivals marking two of the most important days on the Buddhist calendar run smoothly next week.

A school security guard was seriously wounded in Pattani on Friday afternoon in a drive-by shooting by two men on a motorcycle.

Five years after a violent rebellion erupted in Thailand's southern Muslim provinces, the conflict remains shrouded in mystery.

A religious teacher and his friend are the latest fatalities in suspected insurgency violence in the South after they were shot dead in Narathiwat's Rangae district.

Lt-General Phichet Visaijorn is facing a test of his time as commander-general of the Fourth Army Area.

From D.Arul Rajoo BANGKOK, June 23 -- A separatist group fighting for the independence of three Muslim-majority provinces in southern Thailand has dismissed a report by the International Crisis Group that the Islamic "pondok" school system is being used in any way to propagate violence.

The Yala-Bangkok passenger train was attacked by gunmen near tambon Na Pradu in Pattania s Kok Pho district about 1.40pm on Friday, but there were no injuries, Pol Lt-Col Nukul Thanirat, chief of Na Pradu police station, said.

Headmaster Rossi Sulon laughs dismissively when asked about his school's links to a separatist insurgency in Thailand's deep south.

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab SINGAPORE, June 22 -- Thailand is bringing back economic development and justice to the restive southern Muslim-dominated provinces as a way to end the long and deepening violence and insurgency there.

Another female teacher was shot dead and two policemen killed by a bomb as separatist violence continued to escalate in the far South on Tuesday.

By D. Arul Rajoo BANGKOK, June 18 -- The situation in the restive Southern Thailand is under control and the number of violent incidents has dropped in recent months, but insurgents are attacking more sensitive targets like teachers and monks, a Thai army spokesman said Thursday.

Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand must stop the "sickening trend" of attacking teachers, 115 of whom have been killed since the outbreak of the separatist rebellion five years ago, a human rights organization said Friday.

In the rustic villages of Thailand's Muslim south, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's promise of large-scale development aid to tackle a brutal insurgency sounds all too familiar.

UP to 1,000 locals gathered sombrely amid heavy security at the Al Furqan mosque in Narathiwat province yesterday, to offer respects to the 10 people killed there a week ago by unidentified gunmen.

The shooting followed Monday's brazen attack on a mosque in Narathiwat, where 10 Muslims were killed and 12 wounded in one of the deadliest incidents this year in the deep south, where nearly 3,500 people have died in violence since 2004.

SUSPECTED separatists beheaded a rubber tapper and shot dead a school janitor, both Buddhists, in the latest violence in Thailand's Muslim south, police said on Monday.