PATTANI : Three people have been killed and one injured in four separate attacks in Pattani over the weekend.
Security officers inspect the scene where Nipa Promphet, the wife of a border patrol policeman, was shot dead while riding a motorcycle home from a market in Pattani’s Mayo district yesterday. PAREZ LOHASANT
The latest violence comes in the wake of the government's agreement to hold peace talks with the rebel group Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), signed last month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The first attack took place on Saturday night in Pattani's Sai Buri district.
Mahamalayeng Waedamae, a 50-year-old village headman, was killed outside a mosque. Police said he was shot three times in the torso by a suspected militant.
Witnesses said Mahamalayeng was about to return home after praying when two gunmen on a motorcycle shot him.
Meanwhile, a deputy village headman was shot and critically injured in Pattani's Yaring district early yesterday. Police suspect an insurgent is also to blame for that attack.
Abdulkordae Hayeesalae, 51, was shot after he returned home at 3.30am. Two gunmen shot him three times in the groin area and then fled, police said.
The victim's relatives took him to a nearby hospital, where he remains in critical condition.
Also in Pattani, Maporsee Awae, 42, a village defence volunteer was shot dead in tambon Takamcham in Nong Chik district yesterday. Gunmen in a pickup truck sprayed his black BMW car with bullets and then fled, police said.
Meanwhile, the wife of a border patrol policeman was shot dead in Mayo district while returning home from a market yesterday.
Pol Col Kong-ath Suwankham, the Mayo police chief, said the incident took place around 11am.
Nipa Promphet, 52 was killed as she was on a motorcycle returning to her home in tambon Talokapo in Yaring district. A group of men in a car on Narathiwat-Pattani Road had followed her, police said.
One of the men shot her in the head with a pistol.
When she fell to the ground, the man fired another shot, hitting her in the torso. She died immediately.
Nipa was the wife of an officer attached to Border Patrol Police Unit 444 in Yaring district.
Deputy Education Minister Sermsak Pongpanit said yesterday the Education Ministry will seek cabinet's approval to increase teachers' risk allowance from 2,500 to 3,500 baht per month in the far South. It will also consider giving compensation of between 2-4 million baht to the families of teachers killed in the region.
Deep South Watch, which monitors the southern violence, said more than 5,000 people have been killed and more than 9,000 injured in about 11,000 incidents since January 2004.
The watchdog said the rate of attacks equals about 3.5 attacks every day in the three southernmost border provinces and the four districts of Songkhla.