PATTANI, Jan 20 – A Muslim widow was shot to death Friday while reading the Koran, the holy book of the Islamic religion, at a graveyard in Pattani’s Sai Buri district here her husband’s remains are buried, police said.

Jaesong Salae, 49, widow of a school janitor who was shot to death earlier by presumed insurgents, was shot once through the temple as she was at prayer by a gunman using a pistol, according to Pol Lt-Col Pattarapong Tongduang, deputy superintendent of Sai Buri police station.

Mrs Jaesong was reading the scriptures on behalf of her husband, who was killed earlier in the insurgency by unidentified assailants.

Police presumed the killing was connected to the southern violence.

The police said that after Mrs Jaesong’s husband was shot, she was hired by a local military unit and that she cooperated with the authorities. Her work may have dissatisfied the presumed insurgents, which led to her killing, investigators speculated.

The Southern Border Police Operation Centre earlier reported, as of the end of 2011, the death toll from southern unrest stood at 5,243, comprising civilians, security forces, monks, teachers and insurgents themselves since the insurgency erupted eight years ago in the southern border region.

Meanwhile, nearly nine thousand persons were wounded in 12,604 insurgent attacks since Jan 2004.

The centre said the attacks and other violence varied, and included shootings, bombings, arson, killings, robberies and during protests. (MCOT online news)