Global General

Special

Newsmaker

Asia Pacific

America

Middle East

Europe

Africa

Anti-Thaksin leader survives assassination

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-17 10:43

BANGKOK -- The founder of the Thai political movement that helped topple former premier Thaksin Shinawatra has survived an assassination attempt that police said left him and two others wounded.

Sondhi Limthongkul, a leader of yellow-shirts protest movement which seized Bangkok airports last year, was ambushed and injured when gunmen opened fire on his car early morning at April 17, 2009, Thai media reported. [Agencies] More Pictures

Gunmen fired about 100 rounds on the car of Sondhi Limthongkul, whose People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is locked in a bitter struggle with pro-Thaksin rivals that has pushed the kingdom to the brink of chaos.

The ambush took place in the early hours as Sondhi was on his way to record a programme for his private television station, and left him with a shoulder wound but out of danger, a local police commander said.

The incident came amid heightened tensions in Thailand following violent protests by Thaksin's supporters, known as Red Shirts, which left two people dead and 123 injured in Bangkok earlier this week.

"At least two attackers followed Sondhi's car, overtook it and sprayed it with about 100 rounds of gunfire from AK-47 and M-16s," said the commander, Colonel King Kwaengwisatchaicharn.

"The motive for the attack is still under investigation," he said.

Sondhi's driver was in a serious condition, while an aide suffered minor injuries.

Thailand has been beset by nearly three years of political turmoil, with mass protests wreaking havoc with daily life and occasionally erupting into violence.

Related readings:  Nicaragua gave ex-Thai PM diplomatic passport  Thai police hunt for protest leaders  Thai riots halt; leaders face arrest  Thai troops surround protestors after 2 killed in clash

At the heart of the dispute has been Thaksin, a polarising populist adored by his mainly poor supporters and loathed by Sondhi's PAD and its backers among Bangkok's elite in the palace, military and bureaucracy.

The PAD held huge rallies in the streets in 2006 that opened the way for the military to remove Thaksin from power in a coup.

It was then mostly dormant until Thaksin's allies won the first post-coup elections. Since then it has helped drive two pro-Thaksin prime ministers from power with mass protests, including seizing Bangkok's airports last year.

Thaksin supporters say those ministers were unlawfully pushed out and have been campaigning for the current premier, Abhisit Vejjajiva, to step down and call new elections.

Sondhi Limthongkul, a leader of yellow-shirts protest movement which seized Bangkok airports last year, was ambushed and injured when gunmen opened fire on his car early morning at April 17, 2009, Thai media reported. [Agencies]

Their protests managed to shut down a summit of Asian leaders in the kingdom last weekend.

The government issued arrest warrants for the exiled Thaksin and 12 of his supporters for allegedly inciting the unrest. No PAD activists have ever faced justice for the November-December airport seizures.

Media mogul Sondhi was once friends with Thaksin and at one point declared him Thailand's "best prime minister ever" -- but then began a campaign against his former ally in late 2005.

Thaksin said Sondhi wanted revenge after the media tycoon invested heavily in a new television station that was blocked by regulatory hurdles.

Sondhi has angered critics by calling for up to 70 percent of the seats in parliament to be filled by appointment.

Thaksin and his supporters have won the last three elections in Thailand, largely because of their support base in the country's poor rural north and northeast.

Thaksin is currently living in Dubai to escape a jail term for corruption.