Over 10,000 combined force personnel are being deployed to beef up security in the deep South during the New Year festival.
Lt Gen Prakarn Chonlayut, the 4th Army commander, ordered local authorities to strengthen security both in communities and in the outskirts of the southernmost provinces over the festival.
A total of 12,000 security officers and defence volunteers will go on standby around the clock in Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and four at-risk districts of Songkhla.
The army was told to join with police, rangers, kamnan, phuyaiban and village defence volunteers to mobilise residents.
They want to strengthen the village surveillance network under the so-called "Thung Yang Daeng model", which emphasises community cooperation in security operations.
Chief district officers are responsible for the operation to ease the burden on the army, and they are able to increase their security forces in the violence-prone areas, Lt Gen Prakarn said.
Meanwhile, in Songkhla, a defence volunteer was shot dead in tambon Phangla of Sadao district on Wednesday night.
The victim was identified as Thawasamon Phetkaew, 28, of Songkhla province, the owner of a wreath shop and a district defence volunteer.
Pol Maj Sithichok Buathong, an investigator at Khlongngae station, was alerted to shooting at 8.30pm. It occurred in front of the Ramita wreath shop, which the victim owned.
When police and a rescue team arrived, they found Thawasamon lying in a pool of blood. She was taken to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Police said after Thawasamon had parked her sedan in front of the shop, one of two insurgents waiting on a Honda Wave motorcycle walked directly towards her and opened fire with a 9mm handgun, seriously wounding her. The suspect sped away on the motorcycle along the Kuan Sator–Ban Baroi Road.
The victim sustained 11 gunshot wounds to her torso and was later pronounced dead at Songklanagarind Hospital.
Several checkpoints were set up in tambon Khlongngae and nearby areas to search for the suspects but both remain at large. Police are investigating.