Two people were shot dead by insurgents in Thailand's Muslim-dominated deep south on Sunday, when the country was praying peace for the region at a ceremony of dropping hundred of millions origami birds.

A retired chief prosecutor of the southern Pattani province was attacked by two men with a 9mm pistol. The 62-year-old victim died later in a local hospital.

The other 64-year-old Pattani resident was shot dead at his grocery by a gunman, who fled the scene by a motorcycle.

Insurgents also made several attempts for bomb or arson attacks in the violence-plagued southernmost stretch consisting of Pattani,Narathiwat and Yala, newspaper Nation reported on Monday.

Besides lightly damage of a local household and a school, these attacks caused no casualty.

Despite of the attacks, the southern region, lying some 1,000 kilometers south of Bangkok, was grapped in a festival atmosphere on Sunday when the Thai air force dropped 120 million paper birds to pray peace for local people.

The Thai government in November started a goodwill campaign, calling for each Thai citizen to fold a paper crane to give moral support and pray peace for locals in the south.

The resulting origami birds around 120 million almost doubled the expected number of 62 million.

Since the beginning of this year, Thailand's deep south has been caught in spiraling violence created by revived local separatism. The ongoing violence has claimed about 500 lives.

Source: Xinhua