Relatives and friends support Rasali Mayamae as he goes to identify the body of his sister, elementary teacher Saimah Mayamae. Saimah was shot dead by a gunman who tried to kill a rural doctor driving Saimah and two female teachers to Toh Bala School in P

A female teacher who was the niece of exiled Muslim leader Wan Kadir Che Man was killed yesterday when suspected militants attacked a pickup carrying her and a group of colleagues plus a doctor.

Saimah Mayamae, an elementary teacher at the Toh Bala School in Pattani's Sai Buri district, died instantly after taking two bullets at close range from a gunman riding pillion on a motorbike that drove up next to the moving truck.

Police said the attackers pulled up on the driver's side and the gunman aimed at Dr Dohmae Pengla, a rural doctor attached to Sai Buri's public health clinic, who was driving three female teachers to their school.

Dohmae ducked for cover after the first shot nipped him on the neck. The gunman then fired two more shots, killing Saimah.

Born in Pattani's Sai Buri district, Wan Kadir has been living in exile for nearly two decades working as an academic. Two years ago, Wan Kadir announced his retirement as the head of Bersatu, a longstanding separatist movement, and expressed his desire to return to Thailand to work towards reconciliation between ethnic Malays and the Buddhist state.

His request was turned down by the Thaksin administration but Thai sources said senior Thai officials held a secret meeting with him to discuss various issues pertaining to violence in the deep South. The current administration was said to have been favourable towards the idea of permitting Wan Kadir to return.

Wan Kadir's niece Saimah became the 73rd teacher or education worker to have been killed since January 2004 when a wave of violence erupted in Thailand's three southernmost provinces. More than 1,900 people, mostly local Muslims, have been killed.

Her death came as the nation mourned the death of Narathiwat teacher Juling Pangamoon. The Chiang Rai native went into a coma nearly eight months ago after she was brutally beaten by a group of 10 young men amid a stand-off between villagers and authorities.

The latest attack came amid a week of tension between police and villagers in nearby Kapoh district, who have been demanding the release of a suspected militant.

A local public health office in Kapoh, which was about five kilometres away from the protest site, was set alight on Tuesday.

Secretary-general of the Internal Security Operation Command Region Four, Maj-General Chamlong Khunsong, vowed not to give in to villagers staging daily protests to demand the release of Sama-ae Jeha.

Chamlong accused the protest organisers of carrying out a number of attacks, including yesterday's shooting in Pattani, M79 grenade attacks on the Kapoh district office and an attack on an Army outpost in Tambon Pong Hoi.