Thai Unrest Kills At Least 2, Wounds Dozens

Local Editor

Thai authorities announced Thursday that an overnight shooting attack on anti-government demonstrators killed at least two people in the capital.

Protesters seeking to oust Thailand's government broke into the grounds of an air force compound, where the acting prime minister was meeting the Election Commission to fix a date for new polls, forcing him to flee.

The crisis deepened last week when the Constitutional Court removed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra for nepotism in a case that many viewed as politically motivated.

Nine Cabinet ministers were also dismissed. Protesters say her removal is not enough; she was simply replaced by a caretaker premier from the ruling party, Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan.

"We are here to tell Niwatthamrong that there is no point standing in our way," Chumpol Jumsai, a leader of the anti-government protesters, told the crowd from on top of a truck shortly before hundreds of protesters evaded police and streamed through a side entrance of the compound.

A former deputy prime minister in a pro-establishment government, told supporters late on Wednesday, "If, by Friday ... the Senate fails to come up with a solution then the people may have to seize power and set up a people's assembly on their own."
Thailand's political crisis began in 2006, when Yingluck's brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was toppled by a military coup after being accused of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team