Two police officers were killed and another seriously injured in a roadside bomb blast in Narathiwat's Rangae district yesterday evening.
The body of Pol L/C Vorawut Wongjarut was found near the blast scene.
Two other officers - Pol Sgt Manachai Pipitthong and Pol L/C Khomsan Wongwatcharabut - sustained serious wounds. Pol Sgt Manachai was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.
The three officers had been assigned to escort teachers to Ban Khaokaew School in the district. They were travelling in a pickup truck on their way back to Rangae police station when the roadside bomb exploded.
Meanwhile, three military rangers providing security for teachers were injured in a bomb blast on a road in Mai Kaen district of Pattani yesterday afternoon.
Witnesses said six rangers from Company 4214 were patrolling on foot along the road at Ban Talay in tambon Taloh Kraithong when the bomb went off.
In another development, the Supreme Court yesterday upheld the life sentence given to a key figure in a southern separatist movement who was convicted of rebellion for raiding and stealing weapons from a military camp in Narathiwat in 2004.
Rosdi Mayama was a member of the separatist Barisan Revolusi Nasional group operating in the Muslim-dominated provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and parts of Songkhla.
He was charged with rebellion, using force in the cause of separatism, procuring weapons, assault, robbery and receiving stolen items.
Prosecutors in 2008 accused him of leading the separatist group that attempted to form an independent state of Patani or Patani Darussalam. The Criminal Court originally handed him the death sentence in 2009, which was later commuted to life in prison due to his testimony being deemed useful during the investigation.
The Appeal Court in 2011 upheld the sentence.
According to the Supreme Court, Rosdi admitted to being a member of a separatist group and gave information to personnel from the 32nd Narathiwat Task Force after he was arrested in 2008.