Thai prime minister orders stepped-up security after bank blasts

Thai PM orders more security after bank blasts

BANGKOK — Thailand’s prime minister ordered stepped-up security in Bangkok on Sunday after four banks were targeted with small explosive devices.

The attacks Saturday night, in which no one was hurt, came a day after the Supreme Court ordered $1.4 billion of exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra’s assets seized for corruption. Authorities had voiced concern the verdict could spark violent protests by his supporters but none occurred.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told reporters Sunday that he did not know who was behind the attacks on Bangkok Bank, the country’s biggest commercial bank.

Police said only minor damage was caused when grenades exploded at two of the bank’s branches, and were found unexploded at two others.

Bangkok Bank has been the target of protests by Thaksin’s supporters, who feel it supports ruling class figures they blame for having the former leader ousted by a 2006 military coup.

Some fringe groups in the pro-Thaksin “Red Shirt” movement advocate violence, but provocateurs seeking to discredit them are also possible suspects in the bank blasts. The government frequently accuses the Red Shirt movement of promoting violence.

In April last year, a Red Shirt protest in Bangkok deteriorated into rioting that left two people dead and had to be quashed by the army.

Thaksin, speaking to his supporters by video from self-imposed exile in Dubai, urged them after Friday’s court ruling to continue their fight for what he termed democracy and justice, but asked them to do so nonviolently.

The United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, the formal umbrella group for the Red Shirts, denied involvement in the blasts.

Small bomb blasts have become a regular feature of Thai politics in the past four years since anti-Thaksin demonstrations leading to the coup were first launched. They rarely cause casualties and even more rarely lead to arrests, but usually succeed in heightening tensions.