Thailand vows to curb violence in south

Srang Saewong, 56, a Buddhist mute highway worker in Yala province, was shot dead Tuesday in Bannang Sata district as he drove to work.

"I don't see a motive such as personal conflict. He was mute and his wife was also mute so it's just part of the campaign of unrest," police Lieutenant Colonel Sakarin Bumpensamai of Bannang Sata told AFP.

Chicken trader Tonkui Saephoo, 72, was shot dead at a food market in Yaring district of Pattani province by unidentified gunmen on Tuesday, while 52-year-old Thanat Nilvisut, a janitor at Pattani Technical College, was shot dead the same day as he traveled to work, police said. Both men were Buddhist.

More than 730 people have now died in near-daily attacks or clashes with security forces since January 2004, when a bloody raid on a weapons depot triggered an uprising in the three majority-Muslim southern provinces bordering Malaysia.