Six people have been shot dead in a spate of attacks in Thailand's south, as the government stepped back from a controversial scheme to deny funding to Muslim villages seen as supporting insurgents.
The six were killed since Tuesday in the mainly Buddhist kingdom's three southernmost Muslim-majority provinces, where an insurgency blamed by the government and analysts on Islamic separatists erupted a year ago.
Violence has surged since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's overwhelming reelection on February 6, and took a frightening new turn last week when insurgents detonated their first car bomb just hours after the prime minister ended a tour of the region.
The latest attacks in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces targeted mainly government workers and police.
Police Sergeant Prawit Kasalo was shot dead by three gunmen early Thursday in Pattani's Mayo district, while a bullet grazed the forehead of his colleague Puriyoa Manoh, police said.
Four people were killed in scattered attacks on Wednesday, according to police.
They included Ismial Maranor, 41, a Muslim deputy chief for Banang Star district in Yala province, and Arwae Hamah, a former chief of Tohdang village in Muang district of Narathiwat province.
Kiattisak Ratopkul, a Buddhist grocery store owner, was killed by two gunmen posing as customers at his shop in Yala's Kota Bahru district.
And Mahamapori Sama-hae, 40, a volunteer security guard in Pattani's Panare district, was shot dead by two gunmen riding a motorcycle in a market.
Police Sergeant Mohammed Wadeng, 25, was shot and injured in Pattani's Yaring district as he returned from his evening exercises late Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Den Kama, the 36-year-old chief of the Muslim village Tohbala in Pattani's Sai Buri district was shot dead by two unidentified assailants on a motorcycle as he was returning from prayers at a mosque.
At least 600 people have been killed in southern violence since January 2004 in the region near the Malaysian border, about 1,000 kilometers (660 miles) south of Bangkok.
The region is more than 80 percent Muslim in mainly Buddhist Thailand, and the people are ethnically Malays.
Amid a barrage of criticism over Thaksin's heavy-handed policies aimed at snuffing out the insurgency, his government Thursday stepped back from his contentious scheme to divide Muslim villages based on their perceived support for the insurgents.
The scheme, which divides about 1,500 villages into red, yellow or green zones according to their level of alleged sympathy for rebels or support of authorities, is only a proposal, government spokesman Jakrapob Penkair told reporters.
Under the plan, more than 350 red villages would see state funding cut so that taxpayers' money would not be used to sponsor "insurgents", Thaksin said in announcing the highly contentious policy last week.
Critics of the scheme said the plan was discriminatory, unconstitutional, and likely to inflame tensions rather than ease them.
But Jakrapob said that "the zoning is merely an idea, not government policy, and as of now it is not being implemented or prepared at all."
"There was not any instruction which could lead to the separation of villagers. The government wants to offer reassurances that that was not a government policy," he added.
Thaksin had berated the many critics of the plan, saying: "What should we do? Give them money so they can buy bombs?"
Thaksin failed to win a single seat in the Muslim south in this month's election, which his Thai Rak Thai party carried with an historic majority that will allow him to form the nation's first elected single-party government.
He has called the first emergency session of parliament in more than 12 years to address the issue, which has proved the most intractable problem his government has faced.
He also plans to send 25 MPs from his party to the region to try to build better relations with residents to understand the roots of the problem.