Blast wounds two at Thai political rally

AFP

Thai security forces investigate the site of bomb attack after a remotely detonated bomb exploded under a vehicle carrying policemen in the southern Yala province, May 31, 2011. — Photo by Reuters

BANGKOK: Two people were injured in a blast believed to have been caused by a hand grenade at a political protest by Thailand’s “Yellow Shirt” demonstrators near Government House, police said Wednesday.

The blast occurred late Tuesday when two men on a motorcycle tossed the device behind a stage at the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) rally, said Major General Wichai Sungprapai of the Bangkok Metropolitan Police.

“The incident happened at around 10:30 pm. One man, an ice-cream vendor, was critically wounded, and the other man, a protester, was slightly injured,” he told AFP.

“We believe perpetrators wanted to incite unrest. There were some 200 protesters at the time of the bomb attack,” he said.

Hundreds of supporters of the royalist PAD have camped out around the Thai government’s compound since late January, demonstrating against its handling of a border dispute with neighbouring Cambodia.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who briefly inspected the bomb site on Wednesday morning and visited relatives of the wounded vendor, ordered police to step up security measures at the protest site.

“I will ask security officials to work out with PAD leaders how to secure the area around the rally, but this time the bomb attack happened behind the stage, which is outside the barricades,” he told reporters.

In Thailand’s divided and colour-coded politics, the yellow-clad protest group has helped unseat three governments in under five years, including that of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

The movement has been aligned to Abhisit’s Democrat Party in the past, but the relationship appears to have soured, and the Yellows’ leaders have urged the public to reject all the candidates in July 3 general elections.

There are fears that the hard-fought election campaign will bring fresh violence to the country, where more than 150 candidates in the vote have sought around-the-clock police protection, officials said Tuesday.

The election will be the first since Thailand was rocked by its deadliest political violence in decades last year, when more than 90 people died in a series of clashes between armed police and opposition “Red Shirt” protesters.

Last week police said they were seeking the 75 “most wanted” professional killers in Thailand, announcing a bounty of up to 100,000 baht each in an attempt to boost security ahead of the polls.

An opposition politician was shot and wounded in early May in what the authorities said appeared to be a politically motivated attack.