BANGKOK, May 27 (Xinhua) -- A three-year-old infant was shot dead in his mother's arms in Thailand's southern province of Pattani by unidentified gunmen late Saturday, and his parents and brother were severely injured, military source said.

    The infant's father was riding motorcycle in Pattani's Mae Lan district with the mother sitting behind and holding the infant andhis one-year-old little brother in her arms as several unidentified gunmen shot at them at about 7:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) Saturday.

    The infant died at the scene and the other three were injured, the source said. The infant's father was a civil servant of the local government.

    The gunmen ran away before the military and police launched a manhunt.

    Also on Saturday, a village head in Narathiwat was severely injured when driving-by gunmen shot two bullets into his chest at about 4:00 p.m. (0900 GMT).

    Meanwhile, government forces on Saturday seized several military weapons and a number of cartridges in Thailand's two troubled southern provinces of Yala and Narathiwat.

    The first arms discovery was made in the morning when more than 100 border patrol rangers and task force soldiers searched a village in Yala's Raman District after learning that insurgents were prepared to launch attack.

    They also found two AK-47 rifles along with 15 cartridges and one rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher and three RPG missiles hidden in fertilizer bags under a bridge near Narathiwat's Rue Sohdistrict.

    The officers believed that the seized grenade launcher was smuggled from abroad as armed insurgents operating in the restive South had never used the deadly weapons before.

    In the second incident, more than 20 task force soldiers found an M-16 automatic rifle with 30 cartridges hidden inside a plastic bag in Narathiwat.

    Almost 1,300 people have been killed since unrest broke out in January 2004 in the three mainly Muslim provinces along Thailand's border with Malaysia. The violence in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces was blamed on a complex web of Islamic separatists, local corruption and organized crime. Enditem