More than 1,700 weapons have been lost to suspected insurgents and just one-fourth of them were recovered in the past nine years since the start of a new round of insurgency war by a new breed of Islamic militants in 2004.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra will take charge of overseeing unrest situation and development projects in the trouble-plague deep South under a new restructured organization officially named the Operational Centre for the Implementation of Policy and Strategy to Resolve Problems of Southern Border Provinces.

There were interesting developments regarding three high-profile security-related crime cases in the restive deep South in the third week of November.

It can be assumed that the absence of a single violent incident for five days in the deep South during the first half of November may be due to the fact that the Islamic militants might have taken a break before unleashing a new round of terrorist attacks rather than the fact that security forces have been successful in deterring the militants.

For the people – both civilians and military alike – in the restive deep south who are used to violence perpetrated by Islamic militants and rogue security forces on daily basis, the fact that there was not a single violent incident on the 2nd, 5th, 8th and 10th of November came as a total surprise although welcoming.