As in Iraq, Ramadan is the season for violence in majority-Muslim southern Thailand.

From Australia's ABC news, courtesy of Reuters:

www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/07/3005277.htm

'Five killed in Thailand's troubled south'

'Bombings and shootings by suspected Islamic militants have killed five people and wounded 13 across Thailand's troubled south, police said Tuesday.

'A Buddhist couple, both teachers, were killed by unknown gunmen while on their way to work.

(Reuters does not give their names.  For that, you have to go to the 'Bangkok Post'

www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/195057/all-schools-in-narathiwat-closed

from whom I learned this: 'Wilas Kongkam, 54, a teacher at Manang Kayee School, and his wife, Komkam Petchprom, 53, a teacher at Tungtodang School, were attacked by two men on a motorcycle at about 6 am while they were on their way to Tanyongmas morning market.  Mr Wilas died at the scene.  His wife was seriously wounded and taken to Rangae Hospital where she died soon after'.  

The Bangkok Post, in a related article, said that the Narathiwat Teachers Federation had ordered temporary closure of all 26 government schools in the southernmost province, following the murder;  the Bangkok Post article I have already linked above added that all 465 schools 'in red zones and risk areas of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat' would be closed for 3 days, by a resolution of the Three Border Provinces Teachers Federation.  So the jihadists by killing two schoolteachers have succeeded in massively disrupting state education.  

The teachers' reason for the temporary closure of the schools, says Federation chairman Sanguan Intharak, is 'to encourage all parties concerned to find effective ways to protect teachers from repeatedly falling prey to the violence'. Good luck with that, mate; in fact you're playing into the jihadists' hands; judging by the behaviour of jihadists elsewhere, they could care less about the closure of non-Islamic schools teaching un-Islamic subjects - CM).

Now, back to Reuters and the ABC:

"The shootings took place in Narathiwat province, where suspected ethnic Malay rebels (note that Reuters and the ABC carefully avoid calling them 'Muslim rebels' or 'Malay Muslim rebels'  - CM) torched government offices, bus shelters, shops and phone booths on Sunday in simultaneous attacks in seven districts. (What is the difference between attacks on this scale and frequency, and open warfare? - CM).

'In separate attacks in Pattani province, a 52 year old Muslim villager was shot dead while leaving his house late Monday, while a 55 year old janitor was gunned down on his way to guard a school.  Another shooting killed a 51 year old Muslim woman as she walked to her local mosque for evening prayer in Yala province on Monday.  On the same day in Yala, two blasts wounded six people including a soldier, while a roadside bomb in another part of the province injured three soldiers on foot patrol.

'No credible group has claimed responsibility for the wave of shootings, bombings, arson attacks and occasional beheadings, which analysts and the government believe is the work of separatists seeking independence or some form of self-rule.

(And, like too many infidel governments everywhere, when faced with Muslim sedition and aggression, the Thai government foolishly ups the de facto jizya - CM.)

'The government has allocated a five-year $US 1.9 billion economic stimulus budget, controlled by the military, in an effort to reduce economic disparity in the impoverished region and reduce the number of recruits to the rebels.  (Seemingly they think, just like Putin pouring money into the Caucasus region, that making Muslims richer will reduce the lure of Jihad.  They are wrong - CM).