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Thai anti-government protesters wounded in explosion Bangkok anti-government protesters wounded in grenade attack
(about 4 hours later)
Dozens of people were wounded in Bangkok when a grenade was hurled at anti-government demonstrators marching through the Thai capital at midday on Friday, raising tensions in the country's political crisis. A week of largely peaceful anti-government protests intended to "shut down" Bangkok took a dangerous turn on Friday when a lunchtime bomb blast injured 36 people and stoked fears of further violence in a nation prone to bloody street wars.
The protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban was in the procession but was not wounded when the explosive device was thrown into a lorry driven by demonstrators that was several dozen metres ahead, the group's spokesman Akanat Promphan said. The city's emergency services centre put the number of injured at 36. The explosion took place when a grenade landed on a lorry driven by protesters during a march. It is unclear if protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban – a former opposition politician who has vowed to rid Thailand of corruption and nepotism – was the intended target, or if the attack was meant to "scare" protesters from continuing their movement, which aims to oust prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra from power.
Police said the grenade was hurled from a nearby building. Police investigating the explosion allegedly found a cache of weapons in an abandoned building near the blast, along with a "red cap" – a clue, or perhaps a red herring, said analysts, related to the colour-coded politics that pit pro-government "red shirts" against anti-government "yellow shirts".
Thailand has been wracked by repeated bouts of unrest since the military ousted the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006 amid charges of corruption and alleged disrespect for the monarchy. The crisis boiled over again late last year after an attempt by the ruling party to push through an amnesty bill that would have allowed Thaksin to return from exile failed. In an interview with the Guardian, "red shirts" leader Tida Tawornseth denied her group's involvement in the violence and said she and other leaders had specifically told members to stay at home during the demonstrations to avoid any conflict.
Anti-government demonstrators who are now seeking to oust the current prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's sister, have taken over seven key roads and overpasses in Bangkok this week, blocking them off with sandbag walls and steel barricades. "We want to save lives, we don't want a civil war. We will not come out because if we come out it will be very dangerous – we want to avoid violence."
The protests have been peaceful but small acts of violence have been reported nightly at protest venues, which have been targeted in shooting attacks. Small explosives have been hurled at the homes of top protest supporters. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets over the last two months calling for Yingluck to quit, alleging she is a proxy of her brother Thaksin – a billionaire tycoon ousted as PM in a military coup in 2006.
Overnight, two motorcycle-riding suspects drove past the residence of the governor of Bangkok, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, and hurled a grenade inside, police said. Armed with whistles, clappers and placards, these opponents of the "Thaksin regime"– which they say is rooted in money politics – want to see government reform take place before any election, and have called for Yingluck to step down and an unelected "people's council" installed in her place.
Sukhumbhand, a member of the Democrat party, which is backing the protesters, was not home at the time and no injuries or serious damage were reported. Although Yingluck has called for a snap election on February 2 in an attempt to appease protesters, the opposition Democrat party has decided to boycott it, leading to a political stalemate that analysts say could become increasingly violent if left unchecked.
The attack was similar to another grenade attack on the home of Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former Democrat premier whose party lost to Yingluck's in a 2011 vote. "The window is narrowing," political scientist Panitan Wattanayagorn of Chulalongkorn University said. "Yingluck has two problems: she has the political crisis to handle, but now with this attack she has the looming larger security crisis at hand too. She needs to pressure the police chief to send able units to control whatever is going to happen … because if Suthep is injured or killed then you have a big, big problem at hand.
The violence came as Yingluck faced fresh legal troubles on Friday after the country's anti-corruption commission announced it would investigate her handling of a controversial rice policy. "You need to control Suthep at all costs – it's like protecting Yasser Arafat."
The legal threat adds to the intense pressure against her caretaker administration to resign as protesters calling for her removal march across the capital for a fifth day to protest at government offices. The protests to date have killed eight and injured hundreds more, with Friday's explosion following small bouts of violence this week that have been waged largely at night, including grenade attacks on PDRC supporters such as Bangkok's governor, Sukhumbhand Paribatra, and former Democrat premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, who lost the 2011 election to Yingluck.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission said on Thursday that it had found grounds to investigate allegations that Yingluck was criminally negligent in her handling of what the government had described as a deal to export surplus rice to China. The political instability, which has seen protesters camp out on Bangkok's busiest intersections and forced Yingluck's government to relocate to offices north of the city, is costing the "land of smiles" an alleged £20m a day in lost revenue and has sparked concerns over a possible military or judicial intervention.
The commission has already determined that there are grounds to press charges against her former commerce minister and more than a dozen other officials. Suthep, who was uninjured in Friday's attack, has called for protesters to lay siege to government ministries, cut water and power to ministers' private homes, and even abduct Yingluck if she refuses to resign. On Friday evening he once again took to a rally stage in yet another call to arms, asking protesters to march on Saturday morning across the country.
If found guilty, Yingluck would be forced to resign. A few miles away from Suthep's stage a candlelight vigil was taking place, where hundreds of Thais in white shirts were calling for peace and calm amid the growing chaos.
"Even though democracy here in Thailand is not complete, elections are the only starting point to create change for the better," said "Bird", a 47-year-old musician. "A coup d'état won't help anything but create more violence."
• Additional reporting by Praves Hongjanya
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