The move followed Thursday’s deadly attack on Narathiwat’s Rangae Police Station in which one officer was killed and five wounded.

Pattani police chief Colonel Piayawat Chalermsri said on Friday that he had instructed all precincts to set up checkpoints at all districts in the province and to closely monitor roads in areas linked to Yala and Narathiwat as well as look for stolen vehicles as insurgents could change their licence plates and use them in bomb attacks.

He also urged all security personnel manning checkpoint, precincts and military outposts to be extra careful to prevent attacks.

In response social media users in the deep South claiming the two men killed by authorities in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district on Wednesday were innocent, Piyawat said such talk was misinformation designed to create a diversion and cause chaos.

Authorities suspect the attack on the police station was in retaliation to the two extrajudicial killings.