Violence in Pattani continues

Sgt Major Chanat Phoothongtip and Private Kittikhun Chaiyaset were wounded when a bomb hidden on a roadside went off in a backroad in Narathiwat's Khok Po district.

They were part of a security unit that included four police officers, all of whom escaped the attack without harm. All were travelling on motorbikes.

The incident came as Prof. Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organisation, was making his second visit to the restive province to encourage more people-to-people exchanges between Muslims and non-Muslims of both countries.

Syamsuddin also met with the chief of the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) Pranai Suwannarat, the governors of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, and Islamic religious leaders from five southern border provinces during his visit.

Prof. Syamruddin urged the local community to work for peace.

Meanwhile, HM the Queen has ordered the Bureau of the Royal Household to send rice and dried food to some 350 Buddhist monks who arrived in the restive region yesterday for this year's Buddhist Lent season.

Gen. Napol Boontab, director of royallysponsored projects, said that 350 monks travelled to stay at temples in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat, and Songkhla to boost the morale of Buddhists in the region.

The ongoing insurgent has claimed more than 2,400 lives since January 2004 and forced a number of monks, as well as laymen, to relocate out of the their community.