The Operations Centre to Resolve Problems in Southern Border Provinces headed by Deputy Prime Minister Yutthasak Sasiprapa has encountered challenges from Islamic militants as well as the Southern Border Provinces Development Advisory Council.

Bio-diversity in Thailand, especially in the three southernmost provinces, has been reconfirmed with the recent discovery of a new species of fish in Toh Daeng peat swamp forest, Narathiwat, by the royally-sponsored Pikul Thong study centre project in cooperation with Singapore national unversity.

In yet another attempt to win back the hearts and minds of the Malay Muslims in the deep South, the Fourth Army Region will reinvestigate all the unresolved security-related criminal cases in which the Malay Muslim victims died in custody or were killed under suspicious circumstances.

Newly-appointed Pattani Governor Thira Minthrasak, alias Governor Dae, is no stranger to the Deep South nor the unrest problem which has beset the region for several decades.

The National Security Council is speeding up the drafting of a new three-year policy blueprint for the three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and parts of Songkhla.