The unrest in Bangkok on Friday involves the same group of people with the same views and the same “boss”, but those who took action could be new faces, according to army chief Gen Apirat Kongsompong, in his capacity as deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command.
Security agencies had been alerted of possible unrest for a while but authorities did not think it would happen so soon, he added.
“The method used is like the incidents in 2006 by the same group of people who planted bombs at police booths in several locations," he said on Friday
“My concern is that political groups or those who did not wish the country well would blame it on security officials. It happened before."
The incidents on Friday were political in nature and more incidents might follow. “But rest assured the prime minister and security forces can handle the situation,” he said.
Gen Apirat added that police had arrested two people and were questioning them.
Asked whether the reports that the two suspects were from the South would have any bearing on the case, the army chief said it didn’t matter, “the people behind it were the same group”, he repeated, without elaborating.
He was believed to be referring to the red-shirt protest movement whose sympathisers have been implicated in numerous minor incidents ever since the coup that overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006, and major unrest in 2010.
