TAK BAI, Nov 1: Thai police said on Monday that almost 200 Muslims detained after a deadly protest one week ago are expected to face sedition charges, which carry a minimum penalty of 20 years in prison.

"We have to look into details on what type of charges but ... I think the charges will be sedition," Colonel Sommai Puttakul, of Tak Bai police in Narathiwat province, said.

He said 189 detainees would be charged and could not explain why his figure differs from the 113 which the army said on Saturday it was still holding.

They were among almost 1,300 people rounded up after authorities used tear gas, water cannon and gunfire to disperse a protest outside the police station in Tak Bai on October 25.

The government said six were shot dead at the protest and three others were found drowned in a river near the protest site. Officials said another 78 were crushed to death or suffocated after being piled into army trucks taking them into detention.

On Saturday the army said it released 1,178 of those held after the protest which was sparked by the arrest of six men accused of passing guns to rebels in the Muslim-majority region.

Sommai said those six, all community defence volunteers, each faced two charges including filing a false police report which claimed their guns were robbed.-AFP