PM calls meeting on violence in Thai deep South

BANGKOK, December 12 (TNA) - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called a meeting with agencies concerned at Bangkok's Government House Wednesday to discuss the situation in Thailand's violence-plagued far South and relevant issues. Yingluck chaired the meeting of a government committee tasked with introducing and implementing policies and strategies on addressing problems in the Thai deep South, in which the national police chief, the army chief, the secretary-general of the National Security Council (NSC), the interior minister and representatives of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) participated to, expectedly, discuss the safety of teachers, as well as development projects and the improvement of security measures and operations in the southernmost Thai region. The meeting followed continual violence in the restive Thai South, with two female school directors having been shot dead in only a one-week period. Meanwhile, Baan Ba Ngo School in Pattani province, whose female director and another male teacher were shot dead by a group of suspected insurgents donned in the police uniform while they were having lunch at the school's canteen on Tuesday, has remained closed, together with nearby Baan Panan School located about two kilometers away, as teachers are concerned over their safety. The Federation of Teachers in Three Southern Border Provinces also convened an urgent meeting at the CS Pattani Hotel to discuss reactions after the violent attacks, as other schools in Pattani have remained open with security officers having continued their patrols to secure the opening schools. In neighbouring Narathiwat, four Buddhist teachers of four schools in Chanae district are seeking official approvals for their transfer to the third-area office of primary school education in the province, where 75 schools under the jurisdiction of the office have remained open. In adjacent Yala Province, a 24-year-old man was, however, shot at about 1:30am Wednesday, with either a personal conflict or southern violence initially assumed by local police as a possible cause of the attack. (TNA)