All 365 schools across the southernmost province of Narathiwat will close for three days from today, as teachers demand that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva pay more attention to the violence in the deep South following the fatal shooting of two of their colleagues yesterday.
Assailants on a motorcycle fired an M16 assault rifle at the teachers - Wilas Promphan, 54, and his wife Khomkham, 52 - at 6am while they were on their way to a fresh market.
Wilas was killed instantly and Khomkham died later at a local hospital.
Their deaths raised the number of teachers killed in the deep South to 135 since violence flared up in the predominantly Muslim region early in 2004.
"We have agreed to close all schools for a while," Narathiwat Teachers Confederation chairman Sanguan Intarak announced after a meeting of teachers held in response to the latest slayings.
He said the latest attack against teachers had dented the morale of all local teaching staff.
The violence erupted in the region more than six years ago but successive governments have failed to find a way to contain it. The current government seems to pay even less attention to the problem, Sanguan said.
"Unless Prime Minister Abhisit comes down to the South, the teachers' confederation will not cremate the two teachers," he said.
Narathiwat Governor Thanon Vejjakornkanont said agencies needed to find measures urgently to protect the lives of teachers in the troubled region.
"We may need a new security plan," he said. "I am told the schools [in Narathiwat] will be closed for three days."
Violence continues to take place in the region on an almost daily basis, but nobody claims responsibility for the attacks.
In another incident, 36yearold Saree Bueraheng, assistant to a village headman, was severely wounded late on Monday when an unknown number of gunmen in a pickup fired on his vehicle.
On Sunday night, a series of arson attacks took place at many locations in Narathiwat. Suspected insurgents fired on a local administration office and set fire to mobile telephone transmission towers and public phone booths across six districts of the violenceplagued province, but there were no reports of casualties.
In response to this week's violence, rangers, troops and marines jointly raided an insurgents' camp on a mountain in Narathiwat's Rangae district yesterday morning.
However, no arrests were made as the camp was deserted by the time the authorities arrived at 9.30am. The camp was hidden on a mountain about 2 kilometres from Buajae village in Tambon Bongor.
Five makeshift houses were found at the camp and officials seized M16 ammunition, fertiliser and equipment for assembling bombs.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Pattani province, a school janitor was shot dead early yesterday, police said.
Mahama Saleh, 55, janitor of Chamao Samton School in Sai Buri district's Tambon Traobon, was found dead in front of the school.
Police said he was shot in the back, apparently by insurgents who had staked out the school.