SOUTH

The Royal Aide-de-Camp Department plans to buy 4,700 pistols and rifles for use by teachers, security officers and village defence volunteers working in the troubled South.

The Defence Ministry department has sought donations to buy the 4,700 9mm semi-automatic pistols and semi-automatic rifles.

Those eligible to receive the firearms must work in the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. They will be for self-defence only.

The department initially wanted to lend the officials the firearms and asked the Interior Ministry to issue them with permits to carry the weapons, a source said.

However, the ministry was worried there might be legal problems regarding the issue of permits as the firearms belong to the military.

It also feared the weapons could be seized or stolen by southern insurgents.

The ministry consulted the Council of State, the government's legal arm, on the legal conditions associated with giving guns to teachers and volunteers.

The council ruled that registration officials could issue permits to those receiving firearms from the Royal Aide-de-Camp Department.

The ministry could limit the number of permits.

Meanwhile, two gunmen yesterday entered a meeting room and shot dead a teacher and injured another man at Muhammadeeya School in Pattani's Khok Pho district.

Bhuvanart Yeeji, 50, was shot twice and died on the spot. The gunmen also shot and injured Solahuddin Hayeewaeji, the school manager.

The attackers entered the meeting room and shot Bhuvanart and Mr Solahuddin as they held a meeting with five other teachers, police said.

In Yala, a police officer and two suspected insurgents were killed yesterday in a gun battle that broke out in Yaha district's tambon Pa Tae.

In a separate attack, a 48-year-old woman was shot dead and her body set on fire in Muang district.

Also in Yala's Muang district, a man riding pillion on a motorcycle threw a metal cylinder containing a bomb into a popular seafood restaurant. The bomb failed to go off.

Also, the education minister yesterday announced private Islamic boarding schools in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, Satun, and Songkhla would receive 1,400 additional teachers to improve educational quality in the coming school year.

Minister Jurin Laksanavisit said the salaries of the new teachers would come from the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre.

Figures from the Office of the Basic Education Commission show students in the southern provinces record the lowest O-net test scores and 70% study at Islamic schools.