Army urges Islamic teachers to fight in court

The eight were arrested last year in connection to the ongoing insurgency in the deep South.

An informed source in the Malaysian side, as well as in the Thai government, said the eight teachers, locally known as ustaz, had fled to Malaysia after they were granted bail.

Sources in the Thai government said the eight had fled because the police were forcing some or all of the eight teachers to spies for them in exchange for leniency. They then decided to flee to Malaysia where a strong network of people to assist them in obtaining asylum to a third country, Thai sources said.

The case was a major embarrassment for a number of senior officials, including the Fourth Army Area commander Lt. General Viroj Buajaroon and director of the multi-agency Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, Pranai Suwanarat, who serve as the guarantors for the ustaz's release.

"We were hoping to lessen the tension between the community and the state agencies," said one Thai officials. "But some in the police had tried to take advantage of the situation by forcing the teachers to spies for them, which translate them being killed by the insurgents," added the officer who declined to be named. Unlike the past, the current generation of militants are said to have been strongly influenced by Islamic teachers.

The move by the Army chief and the SBPAC head in lending their names for granting the bail of the teachers was aimed at winning hearts and minds from the local Malay Muslim community who possessed a strong historical mistrust against the Thai state.

Violence in Thailand's Muslim-majority south has become a daily occurrence. More than 2,400 people have been killed since January 2004.

The Nation