Pregnant schoolteacher shot to death

SOUTH

NARATHIWAT : Insurgents have brutally shot dead a pregnant woman as "retribution" for authoritarian policies, police say.

The woman, eight months' pregnant, was one of two teachers slain in the attack on Tuesday evening.

Police said the killings in Narathiwat were in protest against authoritarian state officials. They believe the attack was in retaliation for heavy-handed tactics employed by authorities to suppress militant groups, special task force chief Chalermchai Sutthinual said.

Lt Col Chalermchai said insurgent groups sought retribution against government personnel after successful raids on dozens of their weapons depots and the arrest of key leaders in recent months.

See our Editorial: Teachers' lives at risk daily

On Tuesday evening, the two teachers were slain and two others wounded in an ambush in Rangae district when they were on their way home in a pickup truck with four other teachers.

The slain were identified as Warunee Nawaga, 37, who was found dead on a front passenger seat, and the pregnant woman Atcharaporn Thepsorn, 37. Mrs Atcharaporn died on her way to hospital.

Male teacher Mamasakree Hayeemusor, who drove the pickup truck, and female teacher Sarocha Sanriam received gunshot wounds.

Police said four people in military uniform on two motorcycles overtook the vehicle carrying the teachers on their way home and flagged it down on Chanae-Rangae Road. Two of them parked a motorcycle about 50 metres from the pickup truck to keep a lookout for authorities. The two other men approached the vehicle.

As one of the men told Mr Mamasakree there was a bomb on the road ahead, the other, armed with an AK-47 rifle, opened fire.

Prakong Kongkaew, Rangae district chief, said survivors told officers they assumed the militants chose to shoot the two non-Muslim female teachers dead. The other four teachers were spared because they were Muslims.

The grisly attack has refuelled fears about the safety of teachers.

Lt Col Chalermchai sent his condolences to the families of the teachers and vowed to tighten security.

Shortly after the shooting of the teachers, a villager was killed and five others wounded in a gun attack at a teashop in the same district.

Lt Col Chalermchai believed the two attacks were the work of the same group.

Adul Promsaeng, director of Narathiwat education zone 2, yesterday offered his condolences, saying the incident had not weakened the spirits of teachers.

Schools in three education zones remained open except the two schools where the two teachers worked, he said.

Lt Gen Kasikorn Kirisri, the commander of the joint civilian, military and police taskforce, provided cash relief to the families of the victims in the two attacks.

In the wake of the fatal attack against the teachers, neighbouring Yala yesterday beefed up security for teachers.

One teacher, who asked not to be named, said two threatening letters had been sent to her and her colleagues warning they would be harmed if they did not leave their jobs.