Maleekee Doloh could count himself lucky for surviving the deadly journey in an army truck from Tak Bai district of Narathiwat to Ingkayuth camp in Nong Chik district of Pattani on that fateful day on October 25, 2004 infamously known as the Tak Bai incident.

The recent appointment of Mr Kasturi Mahkota as the new president of Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) has now been challenged by the Pulo’s council of senior leaders.

The Pattani United Liberation Organisation (Pulo) has recently announced the appointment of a new leader, Mr Kasturi Mahkota, but the Thai security authorities are indifferent to the new appointment claiming that the decades-old separatist movement has no control of the new breed of Islamic insurgents who have been waging a terror campaign in the deep South.

The killing of a family of three Thai Buddhists in Panareh district of Pattani province on October 13 was believed to be part of a terror campaign waged by Islamic insurgents to force the Thai Buddhists out of the deep South and to drive a wedge between them and their Malay Muslim neighbours.

Mrs Chitra Payom and Mrs Maska Jeh-uma are long-time residents of Narathiwat who don’t know each other but, due to uncontrollable circumstances, share one thing in common – that is both have lost their loved ones in the continuing senseless violence in the deep South.