Leaflets vowing to continue the insurgent war against teachers greeted Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Thursday on her visit to the far South.
PM offers support: Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra poses for a photo with Muslim women during a meeting with the Thai Women Empowerment Fund at CS Pattani Hotel in Pattani's Muang district Thursday.
The leaflets were distributed by insurgents prior to the prime minister's arrival, reading: ‘‘This war isn't over. Don't count the teachers' corpses just yet.''
Ms Yingluck's visit was prompted by a rise in the number of deadly attacks against teachers in the troubled region.
Before her arrival in the South, the leaflets had been handed out in Chana, Thepha, Na Thawi, and Saba Yoi districts of Songkhla province, which border the three violence-plagued southern provinces of Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat.
The presence of the threatening flyers came as another blow to the morale of teachers who have been rattled by the recent murders of their peers, Boonsom Thongsiprai, chairman of the Teachers' Federation of the Three Southern Border Provinces, said.
Two teachers, one a female school director in Mayo district of Pattani, were killed in the latest attack on Tuesday, prompting the confederation on Wednesday to announce that classes at 1,200 far South schools would be suspended for two days. The two deaths brought the number of teachers killed in southern violence to 157. Of this number, four were women.
In Pattani, Ms Yingluck held a closed-door meeting with 20 representatives of the teachers' confederation at a hotel in Muang district. She said she would call a meeting with security officials Friday to work on improving security measures for teachers.