The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is threatening to hunt down fugitive red-shirt leader Jakrapob Penkair after he unveiled plans to establish a potential government in exile to counter the junta.
NCPO deputy spokesman Winthai Suvaree said authorities are monitoring Mr Jakrapob and considering tracking him down following a media report about his plan to create an anti-junta organisation abroad.
According to the report published in the Cambodia Daily on Monday, Mr Jakrapob said an organisation aimed at resisting the junta will be made public soon.
The organisation will be based in a Western country for diplomatic reasons and could lead to a government in exile, he told the paper.
Col Winthai said officials are yet to verify whether there are any grounds to Mr Jakrapob's claims.
Either way, the red-shirt leader's comments are in clear defiance of NCPO orders and martial law.
Mr Jakrapob was quoted as saying that talks are taking place with officials from a number of Western countries and the plan had been "encouragingly" well received.
He suggested he would be appointed secretary-general of the unnamed body. Ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra will not play a direct role, he said.
Mr Jakrapob, a leader of the Red Siam group, fled the country to escape charges of instigating violence after political riots erupted against the Democrat-led government in 2009.
NCPO secretary-general Udomdej Sitabutr said yesterday that coup leader Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha has asked troops and police to be cautious in handling anti-coup protests.
He said Gen Prayuth had urged security forces to exercise restraint when enforcing the law to make sure no situation gets out of hand.
Gen Prayuth has also instructed officials to trace the origins of weapons seized in recent days, to examine if they had been used in any attacks, the NCPO secretary-general said.
Meanwhile, an anti-coup protester was arrested for flattening the tyre of an army vehicle during a protest at Victory Monument last Wednesday, police said.
Sombat Komaiphan, 43, is one of 14 people facing arrest warrants for their role in the protest, in which 10 soldiers were injured and an army vehicle vandalised.
Pol Maj Gen Amnuay Nimnamo, acting deputy Metropolitan Police Bureau chief, said the suspect was caught on Monday at a hotel in Ratchaprasong. He was identified through a photograph of him squatting near the army vehicle.
Pol Maj Gen Amnuay said Mr Sombat admitted to flattening the tyre and understood why legal action was being taken against him.
Mr Sombat was charged with defying the ban on political gatherings, obstructing state officials and damaging state property.