The scholarships will be given to 3,000 high-school students living in the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, Health Minister Mongkol Na Songkla said.

The scholarships will also be made available to students from districts in Songkhla province affected by violence, he said.

Recipients will be required to work in the three southern provinces for eight years after finishing their studies, he said.

The plan is part of the government's effort to improve medical care and educational opportunities to the residents in the deep South, Mongkol told reporters after the yesterday's Cabinet meeting.

The first batch of scholarships is expected to be awarded ahead of the next school term that starts in May.

Mongkol said there were about 9,000 medical workers in the area and about half of them had requested transfers.

Meanwhile, violence continued in the restive region where an official from the Kraburi Tambon Administrative Organisation (TAO) in Pattani's Mayo district was shot dead. Harong Che-ha, 46, was shot dead at close range by a man using a pistol. Police said Harong was on his way to his rubber plantation early in the morning yesterday when two gunmen on motorbikes drove up and shot him at point blank.

Yala's Bangnang Sta district also saw another drive-by shooting of a local villager. Abdulmana Phadung, 50, was also shot dead at close range.

Police said Abdulmana was on his way to a nearby mosque for the mid-day prayer when two gunmen drove up and fired at him, hitting him in the face with four shots and one on his stomach.

In Pattani's Tambon Mohmawee, a 50-strong combined forces carried out a manhunt for suspects behind the April 21 roadside bombing that killed four soldiers in a military Humvee. Officials detained a man, Kusaha Longsere, 26, for questioning after they found a video camera with a tape of the bombing incident.