Hours earlier, four public schools were set ablaze late in an act of defiance after authorities imposed a strict curfew in two parts of Yala province.

Police said militants arrived in a sedan with an M79 grenade launcher before dawn and fired four rounds into the Dawa Centre in Yaha district, where more than 150 people were inside to conduct early morning prayers.

They suspected at least five insurgents were involved in the attack on the centre, which is a branch of the Tablighi Jamaat missionary movement.

Minutes later, a grenade was fired into the Al-Ismamiyah Mosque in Ban Asin village, about a kilometre away in Yaha district. No one was injured but one of the mosque's pillars was damaged. The same group is believed to have been responsible.

Late on Wednesday two more public schools were set on fire, along with about 20 other minor attacks and disturbances in the Yaha and nearby Bannang Sata districts.

"The insurgents are able to move quickly on foot and disappear. Their attacks are also well coordinated," Bannang Sata district chief Methee Kanchanaphuwa said. "The village defence volunteer scheme is not enough to provide the needed security."

The two districts were put under an 8pm-4am curfew shortly after the brutal massacre of eight Buddhists in a commuter van last month in the Yaha area. The same day a group of armed men fired into a mosque in the same district, injuring seven people.

Army spokesman Col Akara Thiprot said yesterday's pre-dawn attacks on the Dawa Centre and nearby mosque were undertaken by insurgents to intimidate fellow Muslims who cooperate with the state.

"The insurgents want to scare away Muslims who may want to help authorities in quelling the violence," Akara said. "They want to cause strife between Muslims and Buddhists and make the two communities distrust each other."

Several Muslim leaders in the region said they agreed with the authorities.

"A significant portion of the local population think the attackers were government security officers. I think the authorities must move quick to explain what really happened," said Nimu Makajae, a leading Islamic figure in the region.

"What I don't understand is where were the authorities? How were these people able to drive around with loaded weapons?" Nimu asked.

In Bangkok, Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin said there were no plans to extend curfews and dismissed suggestions recent attacks were a direct attempt to discredit the government.

Meanwhile, there was more strife in Narathiwat's Bacho district, a bomb was set off as six soldiers passed on three patrolling motorbikes. Private Piyarat Polcharoen, 22, was hurt.

In Pattani's Tambon Khokpo, two men ambushed local villager, Chalao Chanthong, 37, as he travelled to his rubber plantation. Chalao was found lying in a pool of blood by local residents, who took him to a nearby hospital.

More than 2,000 people have died since January 2004 in the far southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani as a result of the separatist insurgency.

The massacre of Buddhist commuters, a mosque bombing and a grenade attack on a teashop full of Muslims on March 14 left three dead and injured at least 11 people.

The Nation

Yala