School teachers in southern Thailand will be allowed to carry guns, because local representatives of the Religion of Peace keep murdering them. (Hat tip: IreneFingIrene.)

School teachers in Thailand’s troubled southern provinces will be allowed to carry guns, the government has said.

The move is one of a series of measures designed to keep education staff from leaving the violence-hit south.

Many of the region’s teachers are thought to have either stopped working or demanded a transfer from the area.

More than 700 people, including at least 24 teachers, have been killed since January 2004 in unrest which the government blames on Islamic militants.