Bangkok - The chief of Rangae district of Thailand‘s southernmost Narathiwat Province ordered 30 government schools in his district to be closed Friday for fear that teachers would fall victims of insurgents.
Prakong Kongkaew, the district chief, was quoted by local news network The Nation as saying that villagers had alerted authorities that some insurgents made movements in the district so he sought cooperation from the chief of Narathiwat‘s Education Zone 3 to have the schools closed.
The closure of the schools would permit soldiers to hunt down the insurgents without having to worry that they would hold teachers hostages, he said.
More and more attacks against teachers in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani had taken place during the past months. All the three southernmost provinces of Thailand have been troubled with insurgency-related violence which has claimed more than 2,500 lives since it resumed in early 2004.
Source: news.xinhuanet.com (17 November 2007)
