Teacher gunned down in Pattani
Pattani - Two suspected insurgents Wednesday morning attacked a group of teachers and a public health officer, resulting in the death of one teacher who was sitting in the backseat of the pickup truck, police said.
Saimah Mayamae, an elementary school teacher at the Toh Bala School in Sai Buri district, died instantly after taking two bullets at closed range by a gunman who was ridding pillion on a motorbike and drove up next the moving pickup truck.Police said the attackers pulled up to the driver's side and aimed his handgun at Dr. Dohmae Pengla, a rural doctor attached to the Sai Bur's public health clinic who was driving three local female teachers to their school in the same district. Dohmae ducked for cover after the first shot nipped him on the neck. The gunman followed through by firing two more shots, hitting Saimah who was sitting in the cab along with two other female teachers from the same school. She became the 73rd doctor to have been killed since January 2004 when a wave of insurgency struck Thailand's three southernmost provinces. Her death came as the entire nation was mourning for the death of a Narathiwat teacher, Juling Pangkamoon. The Chiang Rai native went into coma nearly eight months ago after she was brutally beaten by a group of ten young men amid a stand-off between the villagers and the authorities. More than 1,900, mostly local Muslims, have been killed since the latest separatist insurgency erupted in January 2004. Meanwhile, a Bangkok criminal court released 14 Islamic teachers, or ustaz, on bail after intervention by commander of the Fourth Army Area, Major General Viroj Buacharoon, and senior members of the Southern Boarder Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC). The court set the bail at Bt500,000 for each of the suspects accused of being members of separatist organisations, including the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN). The 14 teachers were arrested at various times over the past two years on a wide range of charges, including treason and illicit underground activities, in relating to the ongoing insurgencies in the Malay-speaking region. According to a senior government official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the 14 were released with the hope that their temporary release would help ease the tension in the restive region. The reconciliatory move came amid a week of tense loggerhead between local police and local villagers in Pattani's Kapoh district who have been demanding the release of a suspected militant. Secretary-general of the Internal Security Operation Command - Region Four's, Major General Chamlong Khunsong, vowed not to give in the villagers who staged a daily protest to demand for the release of Sama-ae Jeha. Chamlong accused the protest organisers of carrying out a number of attacks, including the today's shooting of Dr. Dohmae, the M79 grenade attacks on the Kapoh district office, and the attack of a army outpost in Tambon Pong Hoi on Wednesday. The Nation
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