Ongkorn said the "dialogue" would not constitute formal negotiations with the insurgents as no single group had surfaced to claim responsibility for the violence.

The general, who appeared frustrated at the inability to end the violence, said the militants had no qualms about killing civilians and labelled them "people without religion".

He challenged them to turn their weapons on security

forces rather than unarmed civilians.

No organisation has surfaced to take responsibility for the violence that re-emerged in the three southernmost provinces in late 2001 and has claimed more than 1,200 lives since.

Ongkorn's statement came the day after about 10 armed men stormed a village in Than To district late Monday evening, spraying three homes with bullets and chasing down Abdulaziz Japakiya, 41, who was shot dead as he tried to flee.

His throat was slashed and his body was dumped in an orchard, said Pol Colonel Sithipon Thamsathiporn, superintendent of Than To district.

In a separate incident on Monday evening, police sergeant Abdulloh Jaeteh, 41, was killed in a drive-by shooting in Yala town, police said.

Monday evening also saw some 30 militants attack a Buddhist village in Pattani's Yaring district. They killed three people and torched one home in Che Orh village.

Pol Colonel Sunthon Disyabutr, superintendent of Yaring district, said 50 police officers and two fire trucks had been sent to the village.

The charred body of 70-year-old Sa-ngeam Kaeowprasert was found riddled with bullets in the ashes of his home. His wife, Thanom, escaped the fire but did not survive her bullet wounds.

Villager Somphit Putrarat, 35, died from multiple bullet wounds. His wife and four-year-old child were weeping next to his body when police arrived at the scene.

Sunthon blamed insurgents for the attacks, saying they were trying to make the area ungovernable and trigger sectarian violence.

The Nation

Yala