School security targeted in South
A policeman and a technical-college student were injured in an explosion and a former village chief is in critical condition after being shot here yesterday.
The bomb at Tambon Bo-ngor of Rangae district was said to have been aimed at schoolteacher security details. The injured student attended Narathiwat Agricultural and Technical College and was riding by on a motorcycle at the time. Former Tambon Rusoh village chief Sha-ali Muneh, 43, is in a critical condition after gunmen shot him as he dropped his children at school. A brief gunfight erupted between a police border-patrol unit and an unspecified number of insurgents at Tambon Bang Khunthong of Tak Bai district. There were no injuries. Senior Sgt Major Chucheep Banpitak, 44, said he and two others were ambushed by gunmen firing automatic rifles. Meanwhile, in Yala a roadside bomb in Tambon Than To injured a patrolling soldier. And, deep South rail services will resume today after being halted on Monday when militants derailed a train in Khok Pho district of Pattani, according to the local State Railway director. At least 18 people were injured while transport was paralysed. Damage is estimated at Bt7 million. Tensions remain high this week. Thousands of demonstrators took over Pattani's historic central mosque a week ago demanding troops be withdrawn and states of emergency lifted. In downtown Pattani 1,000 others protested at the disturbance the mosque demonstration caused. The occupation ended after local officials agreed to establish a 30-member joint committee to consider demonstrators' demands and investigate allegations of assaults by soldiers on local residents. Its membership includes protest leader and Ramkhamhaeng University student Tuvaedaniya Awaemaegnae, Pattani Islamic Committee chairman Waeduramae Ma-mingji and human rights activist Angkhana Neelaphai-jit, the wife of missing lawyer Somchai. Prince of Songkhla Univer-sity Assistant Professor and former member of the National Reconciliation Council Wora-wit Baru warned violence had taken its toll on Muslim-Buddhist relations. The split will widen by the day unless the government finds a way to settle tensions, he said.
The Nation NARATHIWAT
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