BANGKOK, Thailand – Residents of a district in Songkhla are protesting against inclusion of their neighborhoods in a Ramadan ceasefire agreement, saying they do not want to be linked with violence in the Deep South, the Bangkok Post reported on Friday (July 19th).

"The district is not located adjacent to any [insurgency-plagued] province in the Deep South and violence has never happened in the area," the Post quoted local leader Charas Madsia as saying. He commented that Muslim as well as Buddhist residents, businesspeople and religious leaders were opposed to being associated with violence-torn parts of the South.

"Sadao is a border trade and tourism centre that connects with Kedah state in Malaysia and will become a gateway to other ASEAN countries when the ASEAN Economic Community is formed in 2015," the Post quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, the Thai National Security Council (NSC) has also rejected the idea, according to the news site MCOT Online.

Thailand and one of the main insurgent groups in the Deep South, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional, have agreed on a 40-day truce in honour of Ramadan. The accord covers Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala and five districts of Songkhla, excluding Sadao. The BRN, however, has reportedly proposed modifying the deal to cover Sadao as well.