This is a seemingly never ending situation. This Southern area of Thailand is on the border of the mostly Muslim country Malaysia. I was there working with the Thai Army and Thai police in the late 1960’s when it was then an on going problem... Since Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist, the Muslims can never seem to make much headway. And the Thai authorities (police and army) can be quite ruthless... But Islam has a new head of steam and well who knows.
I’m not usually one to root for police violence and over-reaction to citizens actions, but in this case, I’ll happily look the other way if and when the Thai police take the Muslims to the woodshed for anything worse than spitting on the sidewalk.
When the Buddhists first encountered the Muslims in Central Asia and Afghanistan (remember the Bamiyan Buddhas?), the Buddhist reaction was no reaction at all. The Buddhists tamely submitted to the Muslims. No they did not embrace Islam en masse; they just gave themselves up for being slaughtered en masse by the Muslims.
Many of the Buddhists never learned to resist the Muslims. Even when the Muslims raided famous Buddhist Universities like Nalanda in India’s Bihar province, the Buddhists died en masse when the Muslim swordsmen slaughtered them like hyena would devour a clutch of rabbits in a cage.
http://www.historyofjihad.org/thailand.html?syf=contact
the Buddhists of Thailand momentarily overcame the moral scruples that Buddhism imposed on them of being utterly non-violent and launched a counter-offensive against the Jihadis who had begun ravaging Southern Thailand in the 17th century. Only to be lulled back in to apathy of non-violence in to the 21st century to invite upon themselves another round of attacks from the Muslim Malays from the 1980s which have escalated especially after 9/11. But the Thais have fought back the Jihad to preserve Thailand as a Buddhist island amidst a Muslim Ocean