Has the Thai government committed a serious blunder by mistaking a school sports day parade as a militant training ground? According to The Nation , that seems to be the case.

The daily reported today that the photos, which caused a diplomatic row between Malaysia and Thailand were of high-school students from a religious school in Pattani dressed in 'junior military uniforms'.

The Thai government has used these photos to claim that Muslim separatist militants were being trained in religious schools in the jungles of Kelantan. This caused a massive uproar here with the Malaysian government asking for proof .

The Nation said the controversial photo, which was published in another local daily, actually showed a group of Thai Muslim students dressed in 'junior military uniforms' wearing a chequered scarf.

It added that these students were standing in a relatively open area with a few rubber trees in the background, not a dense forest as claimed by the Thai government

It said the photo looked like the students were putting "on their best face for what appeared to be a class picture of school buddies taken four years ago". One of them was posing with a toy gun.

The daily also quoted the principal of the Pattani religious school - Islam Nithiwit School - Mahkohli Je-wae, as confirming that the photo showed by the Thai government was indeed taken at his school by students participating in a parade marking the school's Sports Day.

He said these student were told to dress up in costumes, so some put on the military outfits known as ror dor uniforms. He had also provided the daily with other photos taken at the same function.

Parliamentary motion

Responding to this latest development, Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang proposed to move a motion in Parliament to deplore the Thai government for its diplomatic gaffe and wrongful accusation against Malaysia.

"If the latest Thai press reports are true, then Thaksin (Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) and his government had committed an egregious error compounded by an unnecessarily truculent and un-Asean attitude and the gross offence against neighbouring Asean nations," he said in a statement.

He also pointed out that a recent research study by the Prince of Songkla University revealed that the great bulk of violence in the deep South in Thailand over the past decade had taken place since Thaksin assumed power in 2001.

Previously, the Thai government's intelligence report had accused Malaysia's Islamic opposition party PAS of fuelling the violence in southern Thailand.

The intelligence officer who authored the report claimed to have based his findings on a PAS-organised seminar in Kuala Lumpur which was attended by Youth chief Salahuddin Ayub, his deputy Idris Ahmad and Federal Territory PAS Youth chief Riduan Mohd Noor.

However the party denied such a seminar ever took place.