Protests and blockades and a grenade attack against a politician deepened fears of a civil conflict in Thailand after the prime minister rejected demands by anti-government protesters.
Anti-government protesters fortified a sprawling encampment in Bangkok's main shopping district and urged supporters in northern provinces to block convoys of police and soldiers from coming into the capital, adding to a growing sense of lawlessness.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva today rejected a proposal by the protesters to call elections in 30 days and hold a vote 60 days later, dashing hopes for an end to a seven-week standoff that has paralysed Bangkok and killed 26 people.
A grenade was hurled last night at a police post near the home of Banharn Silapa-Archa, chief adviser to the Chart Thai Pattana Party, wounding at least 11 people, a medical centre said.
Mr Banharn is a former prime minister who has switched allegiance regularly throughout his career. Protesters have called for his party and other governing coalition partners to abandon Mr Abhisit's Democrats to force fresh elections.
The mostly rural and urban poor "red shirts", responded to their leaders' call for resistance with a half-dozen blockades in their northern and eastern strongholds, another headache for the Oxford-educated Mr Abhisit, who faces pressure from a traditional ruling class to take a hard line against the protests.
Hundreds manned roadblocks in at least three northeastern provinces and around Bangkok to prevent security forces from entering the capital ahead of what protest leaders said was an imminent security crackdown. Local television footage showed protesters carrying out searches, even on soldiers.
In northern Phitsanulok, about 150 police with riot gear charged through a makeshift barricade after 100 protesters hurled bottles and rocks at them.
In Pathum Thani province on Bangkok's northern outskirts, hundreds of red shirts abandoned their blockade after being outnumbered by armed troops and police following a tense standoff. Twenty protesters were detained.
Red shirts say they thwarted a military crackdown on their encampment in central Bangkok after supporters turned out in force last night. The army chief has said repeatedly a crackdown would do more harm than good.
Any attempt to disperse them risks heavy casualties and the prospect of clashes spilling into high-end residential areas, which are slowly emptying of residents and workers as shops close and apartment building owners tighten security.
Protest leaders have told supporters to take off their red shirts to be less visible to security forces in any crackdown. A rival protest group known as the "yellow shirts" said they will gather on Thursday outside a heavily fortified army barrack where Mr Abhisit has a temporary office to urge authorities to disperse the red shirts.
The "yellows shirts" are well versed in street protests themselves, besieging the prime minister's office for three months and taking over Bangkok's airports for eight days in 2008.
Army chief Anupong Paochinda acknowledged on Sunday some retired and inactive officers had joined the protest movement, but sought to play down talks of a split in the armed forces.
Analysts say a well-armed rogue military element led by retired generals backs the protesters and is allied with the red shirts’ de facto leader, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.
The red shirts say Mr Abhisit came to power illegitimately in 2008, heading a coalition cobbled together with the help of the military, after a pro-Thaksin government fell when a court dissolved a party affiliated with him.
Reuters