Caretaker Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng yesterday announced a plan to improve security at the 120 public schools in the restive deep South amid growing calls from the public and educators for authorities to do more to protect them from violence.

After a meeting with representatives of the teachers' union in the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, Chaturon said every school would be equipped with a closed-circuit camera, as well as being given a separate budget to hire more security guards, preferably from the local community.

Chaturon said response times by local security units would be shortened by better communications equipment.

The announcement came after strong criticism of security agencies, which have been accused of being slow to react to attacks on schools and teachers by suspected insurgents.

Separately, hawkish Defence Minister Thammarak Issarangura broke his silence about the government's handling of the violence after weeks of keeping a low profile.

He called for stronger action against the insurgents. "Authorities have to learn how to hit back instead of just permitting the insurgents to hit them," he said. "Certainly I would hit back. I wouldn't just let the situation deteriorate to this point."

His statement came amid a tense debate among security agencies and policy-makers over whether to use more peaceful means to tackle the violence in the Muslim-majority South, where more than 1,300 people have been killed since January 2004.

Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin gave a more moderate view. He said it was important to incorporate the local community in security arrangements and preventive measures, as this would give them a sense of ownership of their community.

However, he side-stepped claims that political leaders, while often blaming the Army for failing to curb the violence, had not given the military a sufficient mandate to implement security measures.

Meanwhile, a gunman shot dead a villager in Pattani's Tung Yang Daeng district on Thursday. Wadoh Thayeh, 37, was killed while returning home from a teashop just before midnight.

Police believe the same gunman shot at village defence volunteers shortly after killing Wadoh. There were no reports of injuries.

Separately, yesterday morning, two men on a motorcycle shot at a factory worker in Pattani's tambon Pakarang but failed to hit the man, whom police declined to name.

On Friday, insurgents targeted troops with four bombs in the region, injuring two soldiers. Two bombings in Narathiwat failed to cause any injuries, but the third in Yala left two soldiers wounded and a military car slightly damaged. A fourth bomb in Narathiwat was defused before it exploded.