Suspected Muslim militants yesterday shot dead two people including a 40-year-old man, burning his corpse and leaving behind a message threatening more mayhem, police said. The warning, scrawled on a partially burned Thai flag found next to the charred body of Sompas Ek, said that if innocent Thai Muslims continued to be arrested local Buddhists would not be safe. Referring to the emergency decree meant to help restore law and order, it warned: ``If you continue to use the emergency laws on Thai Muslim neighbourhoods, don't hope that this land will be safe and peaceful,'' said Pol Cpl Wisuth Channarin. Sompas was shot while riding his motorcycle through a rubber plantation about one kilometre from the main road in Raman district of Yala province, police said. He was a former army ranger who had converted to Islam from Buddhism in 1993 after marrying a Muslim woman, said Pol Lt-Col Mustafa Mani.In a separate attack, former teacher Sawat Bunsawat, 54, was found lying in a pool of blood along a roadside in Waeng district of Narathiwat. He had serious gunshot wounds and died on the spot. His wife Jinartda, 52, also a retired teacher, sustained bruises along her body as she fell off their motorcycle. The couple were attacked by two young men on another motorcycle.
In other incidents Jeh-arong Jehmae, a 44-year-old rubber tapper, and his one-year-old son Arleef were seriously wounded in a gun attack in Narathiwat's Rangae district. His wife, Sitibeedor, who narrowly escaped the shooting, said she and her family were ambushed while riding a motorcycle to a rubber plantation. Pol Cpl Khanchit Mantone, 31, of Ban Sarong police station in Yarang district of Pattani, was attacked by two men on a motorcycle. He was hit in both legs but returned fire, prompting the attackers to flee.