An attack on a rally in central Bangkok injured 28 people yesterday, the second such assault in two days on demonstrators staging “shutdown” protests aimed at toppling the Thai government.
Unknown attackers have killed several people during the months-long demonstrations intended to oust the embattled government of Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
Each side has blamed the other for the violence.
Yesterday’s attack — twin blasts followed by gunshots at a busy intersection occupied by the protesters — heightened fears of growing violence before elections called by Yingluck for Feb. 2.
A protest leader told reporters “an explosive device” was thrown into a crowd near a tent where he was sitting behind the main rally stage.
The crowd chased “suspects, but one of them turned back and threw a second device,” Thavorn Senniem said, adding shots were then fired before the attackers escaped on motorcycles.
Twenty-eight injured people were taken to several city hospitals after the attack, a health official said.
“Seven of them are seriously injured ... it’s likely to be from shrapnel,” said Suphan Srithamma, the head of the Thai Department of Medical Services.
The capital’s Erawan emergency center confirmed the toll.
Joining a march across another part of the city, another protest leader urged supporters not to be cowed by the violence.
“It [the attack] is an outrage. We would like you to come out and join our fight ... if we don’t fight, we will fall in to become Thaksin’s slaves,” Akanat Promphan told marchers.
Thailand has been rocked by bouts of bloody unrest since just before a 2006 military coup that ousted former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
He now lives in self-exile overseas to avoid a jail term for corruption.
His younger sister Yingluck has clung on to power through more than two months of street rallies aimed at forcing her elected government from office and installing an unelected “people’s council.”
She has called the elections despite a vow by the main opposition party to boycott them and threats from the protesters to disrupt the polls.
The demonstrators have staged a self-styled “shutdown” of the city since Monday last week, erecting roadblocks and rally stages at several intersections including those in its commercial heart.
The demonstrators are urging the military and independent institutions to bolster their attempt to block the election, which Yingluck is again expected to win.
Observers say widespread violence could prompt intervention by the powerful army in a nation which has seen numerous attempted or successful coups since it abandoned absolute monarchy in 1932.
On Friday one protester died and dozens were injured in a blast at an anti-government march in the city led by firebrand former lawmaker Suthep, the overall protest leader.
Police yesterday said they were hunting two suspects captured on CCTV footage leaving the scene of Friday’s attack after joining the march.
The current wave of protesters is made up of a coalition of Thaksin’s foes among the Bangkok middle class, southerners and the pro-royalist elite.
However, the ousted leader has strong support in the north and northeast, which has helped him or his allies win every election in Thailand this century.
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