Deputy police chief Lt. General Adul Saengsingkoew, the officer who led the raid, said police discovered pieces of evidence that could be used for bomb making in the apartment in downtown Hat Yai.

The five suspects were taken to an army camp in Pattani under the Emergency Law that permits detention without trial for one month.

At least four of the detained are residents of Pattani's Sai Buri district.

Meanwhile, some 2,000 Muslim students and local residents gathered in the Pattani Central Mosque to demand that the government pull out all the troops from the deep South and lift the curfew that has been imposed on various locations in the restive region.

They also called on the state not to meddle in the media reports and urged them not to distort information released to the public.

The event was unprecedented as most of the public demonstration in the region since the October 2004 Tak Bai protest were carried out at the village level by local residents in the hundreds.

Meanwhile, speaking in Songkhla to a group of educators from private Islamic schools in the restive region, Interior Minister Aree Wongaraya encouraged the participatnts to continue on the path of modernisation.

He urged the educators to expand their educational outlook in order so that the next generation of leaders would be better prepared to meet the global challenges. Aree called on the educators to stress ethic in their teachings, as well as employment training.

Aree's visit was part of a government's strategy to shape the institution of Islamic education, which many in the security circle blamed for producing a new generation of separatists.

Local leaders and teachers said the state has missed the point by going after private Islamic schools, which followed curriculum provided by the states in exchange for government's financial assistance.

They said the refusal by the state to address the region's historical past, as well as the lack of empowerment of the local community in determining their own future, has been the root cause for resentment that produce generations after generations of insurgents in the Malayspeaking region.

Meanwhile, violence in the restive region continue unabated yesterday with a roadside bomb in Yala went off in Tambon Yupo, injuring two soldiers, one of whom seriously. The soldiers were part of a unit conducting a routine foot patrol.

Another roadside bombing incident took place in  Narathiwat's Rusoh district, injuring three Special Forces soldiers who were had were returning from a visit to Ban Baluka Elementary School.

In Narathiwat's Rangae district, a police officer was shot dead at point blank in the middle of an outdoor weekend market. Pol Senior Sgt Major Boonsud Yuanlae, 45, was hit at close range in front of fish stand by a gunman using 11mm pistol.

In related development, about 200 villagers, mostly women and children, from Yala's Yaha district block the YalaBetong road to demand an investigation in the shooting death of four young Muslims funeral goers, as well as the eight others, who suffered gunshot wounds fired by a group of Buddhist village defence volunteers.

Local Muslims were angered at the fact that the Army's spokesman, Colonel Acra Thiproch, defended the volunteers' action because they were threatened by rocks and stones.

The Nation