Thai military on Wednesday admitted that Thai army rangers mistakenly shot dead four villagers in restive southern province of Pattani, saying that the ranger "misunderstood" villagers as militants in the incident in late January.

On Jan. 29 night, four people were killed and others were wounded when a ranger unit opened fire on their pickup truck in Nongchik district of Pattani. The military earlier claimed that they were chasing a group of assailants fled on a pick-up truck.

The shooting sparked outrage among villagers. Thai authorities then decided to set up a special panel, chaired by Waedueramae Mamingji, chairman of the Islamic Committee of Pattani, to investigate the incident.

It can be seen that violent incidents happened more frequently after the incident.

After learning about the finding, Army Region 4 commander Lt- Gen Udomchai Thammasarorat told media on Wednesday that the fatal shooting was the work of state officials on duty and it was believed to be caused by a misunderstanding due to circumstances as the ranger outpost had just been attacked and that the rangers pursued the perpetrators until the encounter took place shortly afterward.

He also pledged that any security personnel found involved in the incident would face legal action.

"If the court finds them guilty and sentence them to imprisonment, we will accept the court decision," Thai News Agenct quoted the general as saying.

Following the news conference, Thai authorities provided 400, 000 baht (about 13,000 U.S. dollars) in cash to compensate relatives of each of the four slain civilians.

Since the resurgence of insurgency in 2004, around 11,000 violent incidents instigated by secessionists in the Muslim- dominant southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat happened, with almost 5,000 people killed and nearly 8,000 injured.