The slaying of two Buddhist girls and three Muslim men followed a gun fight between army rangers and separatist insurgents in Narathiwat province on Friday, which left eight militants dead.

The girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot dead early yesterday in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat, one of three southern provinces in the grip of a separatist insurgency which has killed nearly 2,000 people in three years.

Also yesterday morning, a 53-year-old Muslim man was shot and killed in Pattani province, while in nearby Yala province a 43-year-old Muslim man was shot dead at his rubber plantation.

Late Friday, a 53-year-old Muslim man was shot dead in his pickup truck in Narathiwat province.

Violence has recently escalated in the provinces bordering Malaysia, which were once an independent sultanate, despite a raft of peace-building measures proposed by the new government, installed after a coup last year.

A series of coordinated attacks across the region on February 18 killed nine and injured 44, leaving many people questioning whether the new government would be capable of curbing the shadowy insurgency.