Fackrudin Boto, a Muslim senator for Narathiwat, survived the shooting and was in stable condition after a four-hour operation said Chamlong Rattanaphan, deputy director of Narathiwat Rachanakarin Hospital.

Fackrudin was riding his motorbike to his home in Darusalam Islamic School after buying groceries and having tea with friends in a local market. When he was about 200 metres away from the school, a gunman riding pillion on a motorbike opened fire with an 11-millimetre pistol, aiming at his head. Fackrudin saw the attack coming and moved to avoid it, but one bullet hit his cheek, said police.

Colonel Manote Anandritthikul of Rangae district police said the shooting might be related to a dispute at Fackrudin's Darusalam Islamic School, the biggest in Narathiwat with nearly 5,000 students.

Manote said Fackrudin recently expelled nearly 100 students for misbehaviour. Among those expelled were 20 female students who were pregnant. The rest were male students suspected of using or selling drugs.

These students might have made up a story to tell their parents, which made the parents angry, or they might have sought revenge themselves, Manote said.

Nonetheless, the police could not rule out insurgency as the possible motive, he said.

However, Narathiwat governor Pracha Therat insisted there was no link between the attack on Fackrudin and the ongoing violence in the deep South. He said that he had already assigned officials to check if the expelled students had any links with suspected militants in the area.

Pracha also warned local politicians to be on alert during the upcoming election campaign as arson attacks by opponents could be blamed on insurgents.

In Narathiwat's Rusoh district, Chanan Chanpeeya, 20, the son of a municipality chief, Kavi Chanpeeya, was injured when two gunmen opened fire while he was standing outside his house, said police. He was hit in the stomach.

Just 800 metres away, Naris Soramud, 50, and his wife Ngern Soramud, 49, were shot while at work in a charcoal factory.

All three victims were sent to a local hospital.

Police said two suspected Muslim insurgents riding a motorbike opened fire at Chanan with a .38 pistol before riding to the charcoal factory and shooting the couple.

Police suspected the three shootings might have been a diversionary tactic against a combined force of 60 police, soldiers and local administrators who were raiding a village in Rusoh district.

In Pattani's Nong Chik district, Suthin Boonklean, 59, was found dead by a roadside next to his motorbike. Investigating officials found two bullets in his body and suspected Muslim militants were behind the attack.

The shootings came five days after suspected separatist militants staged their biggest show of force in weeks, with some 100 bombings and arson attacks in the South on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, a source in the Forward Command of Yala's Interior Ministry Office claimed that less than 30 per cent of 1,000 surveillance cameras in three southernmost provinces were working.

"The three governors have urged the Interior Ministry to tell the company that set up these cameras to fix them because we do not have the right to do so," said the source, adding that the company had a direct contract with the Interior Ministry.

So far, there had been no response from the ministry.

"I don't know if these cameras are of low quality, but the work of officials in tracking down suspected insurgents could have been more efficient had these cameras worked properly," the source said.

Nearly 1,400 people have been killed in the mainly Muslim southern provinces since violence erupted in January 2004.