Hundreds gathered Wednesday at a school in Thailand’s Deep South to mourn and pray for peace, a day after a bomb near the campus killed a small girl, her father and a third civilian, in an attack blamed on rebels.

Students, teachers, Islamic leaders and local government officials were among some 500 who turned out at the Ban Taba school in Tak Bai, a district of Narathiwat province, to call for an end to violence in Thailand’s southern border region.

The latest attack angered the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Human Rights Watch, and the Sheikhul Islam Office, a government organization that represents Thailand’s Muslim minority, which dominates the Malay-speaking Deep South.

“The Sheikhul Islam Office sincerely offers condolences to the family and relatives of the dead in the incident and strongly condemns the assailants regardless of who they are. The attack is cruel and inhumane and is against the exaltation of Allah’s teaching,” the office said in a statement released late Tuesday.

Narathiwat Governor Sithichai Sakda, who was among those participating in the gathering at the school, told reporters he had talked with local authorities about assessing and possibly revamping safety measures in 13 districts of the province.

“We discussed with the military and the police about surveying areas with high risk to analyse safety measures. It is a delicate issue that we need to consider carefully,” the governor said.

Since 2004, more than 6,000 people have died in shootings, roadside bombings and other incidents associated with a separatist insurgency.

Full story: BenarNews

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