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Grenade attacks raise tensions in Thailand |
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(03/01/2010)
Bangkok, PAB-Online
Thailand tightened security on Sunday after two grenades exploded
outside branches of the country's biggest bank in a suspected reaction
to a court verdict against deposed premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
Unidentified attackers fired four grenades at branches of Bangkok Bank late Saturday and two of them detonated, causing damage but no casualties, a day after judges confiscated 1.4 billion dollars of the fugitive tycoon's wealth.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said he had asked troops to help provide extra security across the country following the attacks, but said he had not enacted harsh security laws as the government had earlier threatened.
"The bomb incidents were expected after the verdict. They are the actions of a small group of people who want to create unrest," Abhisit said in his weekly television broadcast.
Abhisit said police and soldiers were monitoring at checkpoints and that the government would install more CCTV cameras.
"Our society is in a challenging situation right now," the premier added.
The attacks came just over a week after Thaksin's supporters, known as the "Red Shirts", surrounded Bangkok Bank's headquarters in the capital and forced it to close for the day.
They said the bank has links to chief royal adviser and former prime minister Prem Tinsulanonda, whom they accuse of masterminding the 2006 coup that toppled Thaksin.
The first blast hit a branch in the Silom business district, shattering windows and doors, while the second caused similar damage and also wrecked telephone booths in Samut Prakarn, on the outskirts of the capital.
Another two unexploded grenades were defused at Bangkok Bank branches at around the same time.
Police had boosted security at 14 branches of Bangkok Bank in the capital and at government offices and the houses of ministers and judges, acting city police chief General Pateep Tanprasert said after a security meeting.
The attackers used M67 grenade launchers in all four incidents and "it is believed that the suspects were from the same group, however we need to see more evidence," his deputy Anand Srihirun told reporters.
Thaksin and his supporters have vowed to fight back against the court verdict, branding it a conspiracy by Thailand's military, bureaucratic and palace elites.
The Supreme Court seized the money - about 60 per cent of the 2.3 billion dollars in funds belonging to Thaksin's family which were frozen after the coup - after finding that Thaksin had abused his power while in office.
He is currently living exile to avoid a two-year jail term for graft.
The government had warned of possible violence after the verdict. Thailand's bitter political divide in the four years since the coup has seen a number of violent incidents.
The Red Shirts have said they will hold a mass rally in Bangkok in mid-March, although they have promised that their campaign against Abhisit's government will be non-violent.
Thaksin on Saturday rejected calls from the ruling party to leave the political stage, saying he would "not chicken out", and dismissed its claims that a compromise had been struck by returning a portion of his frozen funds.
The Red Shirts, largely from Thaksin's stronghold in the nation's poor north and northeast, loved his populist policies and accuse Abhisit's government of ignoring their plight since he took power in December 2008.
The tycoon's opponents accuse Thaksin of being corrupt, dictatorial and of threatening Thailand's widely revered monarchy.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 82, who is regarded as a stabilising figure by many Thais, returned early Sunday to the hospital where he has spent the past five months after a brief outing to his palace for a private function, police said. (AFP/CNA/IP)
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