The military will allow an independent body to investigate an allegation by residents that rangers attacked an Islamic boarding school in Yala early this month, the Army said yesterday.

"A panel from the National Legislative Assembly led by General Panthep Phuwanart-nurak will visit the deep South today to begin an investigation," Army spokesman Akra Thiproj said. "We want to clear all doubts."

He said the military had realised local concerns over the attack and therefore agreed to allow an independent panel to investigate the case.

A group of gunmen fired rifles into the school in Ban Taseh on March 9, killing one student and injuring another.

The school is famous among the religious schools, known locally as pondoks, in the predominantly Muslim region, but security officials regard it as a breeding ground for militants.

A school executive who declined to be named said students saw the attackers and knew they were rangers.

"To my disappointment, some of the rangers were Muslim fellows," he said.

Chamroon Den-udom, president of the Islamic Culture Foundation, said the authorities should realise that residents distrusted the rangers and such an attitude was growing.

Residents also suspect rangers attacked another religious school in Songkhla's Saba Yoi district on March 17, when three students were killed and seven others injured.

Saba Yoi residents staged a series of protests last week demanding the authorities clear up the case.

Muslims were angered when officials told the media that the school was not attacked but a bomb accidentally went off while students were practising making explosives.

Chamroom, also a former deputy commander of the Fourth Border Patrol Police Region, urged the government to delay dispatching some 20 companies of rangers to the South next month as local people felt uncomfortable with them.

"The government should spend more time to train the rangers to be well disciplined, rather than heavily equipped, before deployment," he said.