Yala teacher shot dead in his car

Yala teacher shot dead in his car.

A teacher was shot dead in his car yesterday in Yala, where most schools only reopened on Monday following a 10-day closure prompted by a similar attack. Four other people, including two policemen, were seriously injured in drive-by shootings in neighbouring Pattani and Narathiwat provinces.

Teacher Chamnong Temmanee, 47, was found dead in his sedan by a roadside in Yala's Raman district. Police said he was shot in the neck when gunmen riding in a pickup truck opened fire with an 11mm pistol as he was driving home from teaching at Ban Pataerayo School.

Chamnong was the only Buddhist teacher at the school and the 73rd teacher or education worker to be murdered in three years of unrest in the restive deep South.

The attack came a day after Saina Mayamae, a teacher at Toh Bala School in Pattani's Sai Buri district, was shot dead. Her death prompted 34 schools in the province to close yesterday until further notice.

Teachers and schools are often attacked by the insurgents, who view them as easy targets and symbols of Buddhist Thailand's dominance.

In Pattani's Thung Yang Daeng district yesterday, two traffic policemen were critically injured when they were attacked while riding a motorbike back to their office.

Four gunmen on two motorbikes fired at Sgt-Major Wasan Kaewmanee, 36, and Lt-Corporal Somkiat Thepchim, 27, with pistols and tried to snatch their rifles. The officers returned fire back until their attackers fled, investigating officials said.

Elsewhere in Pattani, postman Udon Kimkoo, 47, was making deliveries on his motorbike in Mai Kaen district when two gunmen on a motorbike fire several rounds at him and fled. Udon was hit in the stomach and right shoulder and rushed to hospital.

Police believe Muslim militants were behind the attack.

In Narathiwat's Muang district, villager Kamchad Na Rai, 41, was shot in the head while riding his motorbike to pick up his son from school. He was shot with a pistol by two gunmen on a motorbike and is in critical condition at a local hospital.

In Bacho district of the same province, a bomb went off at a water-pumping station but nobody was injured.

Also in Narathiwat, train services were stopped for two hours after a mysterious box suspected to be a bomb was found at the station in Ban Salo Bukit Yuerae in Rusoh district. Police found the bomb was fake. More than 1,900 people have been killed since violence re-emerged in the South in January 2004. The violence continues despite the military-appointed government, led by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, making the issue one of its top priorities.

The Nation
Friday January 12, 2007