NARATHIWAT - The missing car of Chonlathee Charoenchol, a teacher who was murdered by insurgents in his school, was found in Tak Bai district on Friday.
A villager alerted Tak Bai police about a bronze Nissan sedan left on the edge of a jungle and it turned out to be the one owned by Chonlathee, said Pol Lt Col Weerayut Taseephan, the deputy superintendent of the district police station.
Chonlathee was shot by an insurgent in front of other teachers and pupils at lunchtime Wednesday in the canteen of Ban Tanyong School in neighbouring Ba Cho district. The gunman and three other militants, who went to the school on motorcycles, escaped with his car parked in the school.
Police check a car owned by murdered teacher Chonlathee Charoenchol in Tak Bai district, Narathiwat province. (Photo by Wadao Harai)
Police were looking for the sedan for fear that it could be used for a car bomb operation, which has happened frequently with stolen cars in the southern border provinces.
The district police called in bomb disposal experts to check the vehicle before starting to collect fingerprints in the car to see if any matched those of the four suspects.
Police said the gunman was a man named Sokuning, and his accomplices were named Isma-ae, Ahama and Marosor.
Violence in the three southern provinces since 2004 has killed 158 teachers, most of them Buddhists. Chonlathee, a Muslim, was the latest victim.
Most of the 378 schools in Narathiwat closed on Friday and teachers demanded stiffer safety measures from authorities for them.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung has proposed sending border patrol police to teach students in at-risk schools in the region. However, teachers have mixed reactions to his proposal.