A Malaysian government fisheries official and three Thai Muslims have been gunned down by suspected Islamic militants in southern Thailand, police said Friday.

The killings come a day before thousands of people were expected to meet for a peace conference in Yala, one of three Muslim-majority provinces along the Malaysia border that have been beset by violence since January 2004.

The Malaysian, identified as Ayub bin Yago, was killed with a village chief in Narathiwat province on Friday when gunmen sprayed their vehicle with bullets.

Overnight, a village defense volunteer and a government informant were shot in two separate killings, police said.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in almost daily attacks in the south since the latest violence erupted more than two years ago.

The region was an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago, and separatist unrest has simmered ever since.