Southern Islamic teachers and defecting militants are being more closely screened as authorities suspect one of them was involved in the Big C bombing that injured 61 people in Pattani province last week.
Jamnan Mueandam, a member of the government's high-level committee on southern solutions, said on Wednesday the Education Ministry had been instructed to carefully screen Islamic teachers because one of them was suspected of involvement in the car bombing of the supermarket mall on May 9.
"Islamic teachers have been screened to an extent, but authorities may not know their mindsets. From now on they will be more tightly screened. This must be discussed with representatives of religious schools and provincial Islamic committees," Mr Jamnan said.
The committee also ordered the southern outpost of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) to repeatedly interview defecting southern militants, for the same reason.
Committee member Gen Chamlong Khunsong said a defector was suspected of being behind the Pattani car bombing.
The person in question did not attend a full training course, only about half of it. He defected physically, but not spiritually. He did not attend the part concerning attitude adjustment and the creation of understanding, Gen Chamlong said.
"Someone may attend the training wearing a disguise, but we believe that if they listen to the message in the attitudinal part they will understand and change their mindset," Gen Chamlong said.
Lt Gen Piyawat Nakwanit, commander of the 4th army, said 4,488 defectors would be re-examined. He said Suhaiming Sama-ae, who had defected in February, was a suspect in the Big C Pattani bombing.
Col Peerawat Saengthong, spokesman for Isoc's southern region, said the militant defection programme started in September 2012 and there were 4,488 defectors as of last Friday. They would be ordered to report again for further interviewing.
