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Lone Buddhist grandmother holds out in war-torn Thai village

81-year-old Thai grandmother Jiaw Pongthawil at her home in Baan Ga Doh, a remote village in a security 'red zone' in Thailand's restive province of Narathiwat.
81-year-old Thai grandmother Jiaw Pongthawil at her home in Baan Ga Doh, a remote village in a security 'red zone' in Thailand's restive province of Narathiwat.Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images

Soldiers protect her around the clock from rebel attacks, but an 81-year-old grandmother — the last Buddhist in a Muslim village — vows she will never abandon her home, defying a wider separation of communities in Thailand's insurgency-hit south. 

Since violence erupted in the Muslim-dominated Thai deep south in 2004, Jiaw Pongthawil has seen her Buddhist neighbours flee Baan Ga Doh, a remote village in a security "red zone" in Narathiwat province.

She is now the only Buddhist among 1,200 Malay Muslims.

"I'm afraid. I have been attacked many times... but I have nowhere else to go. This is my property. This is my land," she says, her voice faltering. Read the full story.

-- Agence France Presse

Pongthawil walks past soldiers and sandbags outside her home. In July, a homemade grenade was lobbed from the adjacent road but failed to detonate.
Pongthawil walks past soldiers and sandbags outside her home. In July, a homemade grenade was lobbed from the adjacent road but failed to detonate.Christophe Archambault / AFP - Getty Images

EDITOR'S NOTE: Images taken on September 18, 2013 and made available to NBC News today.