PATTANI: A respected Islamic teacher, or ustaz, was killed in a gun attack by a group of assailants while returning home from a mosque in Nong Chik district in the small hours on Sunday.
Police identified the ustaz as Abdul Mutole Awae of Al Islamiyah Wittaya Foundation School.
A police investigation revealed that after a night prayer Abdu Mutale left the mosque at Kubae Kiyae village in tambon Dato, Nong Chik district, for his home in the village.
On the way home, he stopped to chat and drink tea with members of the village security team at their operational base and left the base at about half past midnight. While arriving in front of his house, a group of assailants opened fire, hitting him many times in the chest and the abdomen.
Seriously wounded, Abdul Mutale was rushed to Mae Lan Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Police were investigating the motive of the killing.
Abdul Mutole had worked as an Islamic teacher for children in the village before going to Sudan for a religion study at a university. On his return, he became an ustaz at the Al Islamiyah Wittaya Foundation School.
