Road spikes were scattered across the road to hinder security forces who were conducting regular patrols in the area.

Meanwhile, in Narathiwat's Tambon Paluru, a roadside bomb set-off remotely by mobile phone injured one Border Patrol Police officer who was part of an eight-man security detail assigned to provide security for teachers at a nearby school.

Police detained Masayuki Mama, 28, who was near the crime scene, for questioning after they discovered he had two mobile phones in his possession.

He was released after some 50 local residents gathered at the local police station to protest his detention. But Narathiwat deputy governor Niphan Naraphithaksakul maintained that Masayuki was released as there was no solid evidence to link him to the attack - not because of the pressure from the villagers.

Separately, on Monday evening in Pattani's Khok Po and Yarang districts, suspected militants targeted 13 public schools. However, local villagers managed to put the fires out in 11 of them, police said.

In Bangkok, Army chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin dismissed a suggestion that Brunei could be a venue for future talks between Thai authorities and leaders of separatist movement, saying the violence in the deep South was a domestic affair.

He said religious leaders have been dispatched to the region to gauge the feelings of the local residents for policy recommendations, but did not say if structural reform for the predominantly Malay-speaking three southernmost provinces was on the table.

The government has made a number of gestures of goodwill but the militants have responded with a spike in violence in the restive region where insurgents have claimed more than 1,900 lives since January 2004.

The Nation

Pattani