PHOTOS: The Nation | Thai PBS

Disguising themselves as army troops, suspected militants surprised a unit of defence volunteers this morning when they opened fire on them at a school in Yarang district, Pattani. They killed four volunteers and taking away their assault rifles.

The violent incident occurred in the compound of Ban Pukoh school in Village 5, Tambon Prachan, where four defence volunteers were assigned to provide protection to teachers.

Wearing army fatigues, the gunmen approached the four volunteers who mistook them as troops and then opened fire with their automatic weapons.

The four volunteers were killed at the scene and the assailants grabbed their HK assault rifles, ran toward a waiting pickup truck and escaped.

The shooting incident shocked and caused panic among teachers and students who screamed in horror as they scrambled for cover. The school was later ordered closed and all the students sent home.

In Betong district of neighboring Yala province, security was ordered to be stepped up and defence volunteers assigned to protect communities were told to check all vehicles entering the communities as a precautionary measure.

Security officials suspect that the attack was carried out by militants associated with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, an armed militia which does not take part in the Malaysia-brokered peace negotiation between the government and Mara Patani.

A car bomb was detonated near a Border Patrol Police task force base in Thepa district of Songkhla province on Tuesday, injuring two border patrol policemen and shattering a transformer, causing partial blackout in the district.

Police tracked the wreckage of pickup truck which was used as car bomb to its owner, a retired school teacher, who was murdered and hanged in his house before insurgents stole his pickup for the attack.

SOURCE: Thai PBS

Keep in contact with The Thaiger by following our Facebook page</s>Four civil defence volunteers gunned down at school in Thailand

PATTANI, Thailand: Four Thai civil defence volunteers were gunned down Thursday at a school in the kingdom’s south with students just metres away, as bloodshed greets the 15th year of an insurgency in the Malay-Muslim border zone.

The culturally distinct region that borders Malaysia has seen rebels fight against the rule of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which annexed the area over a hundred years ago.

Since 2004, armed insurgents have clashed with Thailand’s powerful military, killing nearly 7,000 people — mostly civilians — both Muslims and Buddhists.

The death toll dropped to a record low last year as Thailand’s junta tightened its security web in the south.

But recent weeks have seen an uptick in violence, as rebels show they remain able to carry out operations after 15 years of conflict.

The men killed on Thursday were all Muslim and were guarding a school in Yarang district of Pattani province when the gunmen struck.

An AFP photographer at the scene saw uniformed bodies on a blood-splattered floor in the school compound.

“They were shot dead at the scene,” Lieutenant Wicha Nupannoi, of Yarang police station told AFP, adding the killers were suspected insurgents.

“The assailants seized their four rifles,” he said, adding there were no eyewitnesses to the attack, which took place before lunch.

Civil defence “volunteers” are poorly paid local civilians — both Muslim and Buddhist — who are lightly-trained, armed and paid by the Thai state to supplement security forces who have blanketed the southernmost provinces throughout the rebellion.

The 15-year insurgency has seen scores of teachers killed, slain for their perceived collaboration with the Thai state, and led to the deployment of armed guards at schools.

In a rare public statement dated January 4 the main rebel group — the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) — which has command and control over most of the rebel foot soldiers, swore to “keep fighting”.

“Siam (Thailand) can’t hold out,” the BRN wrote, signing off with a warning: “Do not help and support Siam.”

Prolonged peace talks between the Thai government and an umbrella group which claims to represent the rebels have failed to yield peace.

But Thai authorities as well as the Malaysian facilitator of the talks have recently expressed confidence they will reach a detente soon.</s>Hat Yai, Thailand (AP) — Gunmen disguised as state security personnel fatally shot four paramilitary volunteers guarding a school in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand, police said.

 The attackers approached the armed territorial defense volunteers at the school in Pattani province and shot them dead shortly before noon Thursday, police Lt. Col. Wicha Nupannoi said. They seized four HK33 assault rifles from their victims before fleeing, scattering nails and other material on the road to delay pursuers, he said.

On Tuesday, a bomb outside a school and a car bomb elsewhere exploded in nearby Songkhla province, wounding a 12-year-old student, a security guard for teachers and a police medic. A flurry of similar attacks took place in the last week of December. Several targeted Songkhla, which previously had been largely spared the violence.

“The insurgents consider school officials to be symbolic of the Thai Buddhist state’s occupation of Malay Muslim territory,” Human Rights Watch said in a statement. “They have frequently targeted security personnel assigned to provide students and teachers safe passage to and from school, or protecting the school grounds.”

The attacks have occurred during an effort to revitalize peace talks between the Thai government and some insurgent groups. Analysts say the most militant group, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, is not taking part.

Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan blamed the BRN for Tuesday’s bombings. He said the authorities would have to step up efforts to prevent the attacks.

Human Rights Watch also pinned the blame for the region’s ongoing violence on the BRN.

 The insurgents “attack schools and medical clinics to maim and terrify Buddhist civilians, control the Muslim population, and discredit Thai authorities,” Brad Adams, the group’s Asia director, said in the statement. “Whatever the rationale, targeting civilians is morally indefensible and a war crime.”
Four civil defense volunteers were shot dead by suspected militants in a school in Pattani's Yarang District. Police suspect the attack could have been done by Barisan Revolusi Nasional. Two insurgents were later killed by the police.