Instructors will soon be despatched to the South to train teachers to fight back, said General Napol Bounthap, deputy Royal Thai Aide-de-Camp.

"We have to be careful. Training teachers to use pistols is very sensitive and it could provoke a response from the militants," he said.

The unit, which specialises in royal ceremonial duties and close protection work, falls under the jurisdiction of the Defence Ministry.

In the past two years it has completed weapons training of 900 school staff, dubbed the Teacher Battalion, in the three violence-stricken southernmost provinces.

Another 1,000 teachers in the region are willing to complete similar training this year, said Sanguan Intrarak, secretary-general of Narathiwat Teacher Federation.

He demanded the Education Ministry pay for the teachers to buy handguns.

Militants have often targeted schools. Juling Panganmoon, a female teacher at Kuchign Reupah School in Narathiwat, was beaten into a coma in May after being taken hostage. Many teachers carry weapons to school but few can operate them effectively, according to Prasit Rasitanont, a school inspector in Narathiwat.

Meanwhile, a member of the Southern Border Provinces Peace-building Command was shot dead in Pattani yesterday.

Muhamadyaki Sabeh, 27, was shot in the head while riding his motorbike home after work.

Two men on another motorbike approached and he was shot with an AK-47 rifle. Muhamadyaki died on his way to hospital, police said.

The violence in the South erupted at the beginning of 2004 and has claimed more than 1,300 lives.