July 07, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 21, 1428

NARATHIWAT (Thailand), July 6: Thai authorities said on Friday they have shut down an Islamic school with alleged links to separatist rebels in the nation's restive south, where three people were killed in fresh unrest.

The licence for the Islam Burapha religious school was revoked after seven bomb makers were arrested there on Monday, said Natthaphon Vichienpres, deputy governor of Narathiwat province.

Narathiwat is one of three Muslim-majority provinces where more than 2,300 people have been killed since an insurgency broke out in January 2004.

“A provincial meeting agreed that this school is a gathering place for planning terrorist attacks and it implanted separatist ideology and used the school premises as a training ground,” Natthaphon told reporters.

An eighth man, a 43-year-old religious teacher, was also arrested on Friday in connection with the boys boarding school.

Natthaphon said authorities were planning to issue more arrest warrants for teachers and students at the school.

Also Friday, police said separatist insurgents had shot dead three people in the turbulent region.

A 50-year-old Muslim man, a former member of Narathiwat provincial council, was killed in that province as he returned home from a local football match on Thursday evening, local police said.

The victim was accused of having links with insurgents, who are fighting for a separate Muslim state in Thailand's far south, and was wanted for questioning over a gun robbery. He surrendered to the authorities last year.—AFP