Three Killed in Thailand Blast

Feb. 23, 2014 10:37 a.m. ET

Army soldiers and police were at the scene of a deadly explosion at an antigovernment rally on Sunday in Bangkok. Getty Images

BANGKOK—Three people were killed and dozens injured in a blast near an antigovernment protest in Thailand’s capital on Sunday, as the country’s political divisions turn increasingly violent.
Police officials told reporters that the explosion in one of Bangkok’s busiest tourist and shopping districts appeared to have been caused by a grenade fired into an area near where protesters have been camped for months in a bid to unseat Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The blast killed a woman in her forties and two children, a 4-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl who succumbed to her injuries on Monday morning.
The explosion came a day after attackers in a pickup truck fired on a political rally in Trat province 180 miles east of Bangkok, and threw explosive devices into the crowd, killing at least one person, including a 5-year-old girl.
Police Lt. Thanabhum Newanit said the Saturday attack took place at a market in Khao Saming district.
Many of the people injured weren’t participating in the rally, including the child who was killed. Television footage showed overturned stools next to abandoned food carts, shell casings on the ground and victims crowded into a local hospital.
Drive-by shootings and bomb attacks have plagued political protests here in recent months as antigovernment demonstrators step up their campaign to force the resignation of Ms. Yingluck, Thailand’s elected leader.
With King Bhumibol Adulyadej now 86 years old and entering the twilight of his reign, the protesters want an unelected council to take power and introduce political changes to curb the influence of populist leaders such as Ms. Yingluck and her brother, former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006. In the past three months, 18 people have been killed in the violence.
Ms. Yingluck is pushing back against legal challenges to her government. She has defended a program to support rice prices that so far has incurred paper losses of as much as $8 billion. In a statement on her Facebook page, she said there was no corruption associated with the program, and that it was designed to help raise the standard of living in rural areas.
Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission has said it would charge Ms. Yingluck for mismanagement in connection with the program.
If Ms. Yingluck is found guilty of mismanagement she will be suspended from duty and face an impeachment trial in Thailand’s partially elected Senate.
Concerns are growing over how the mass-membership “Red Shirts” movement will react if Ms. Yingluck is removed from office, especially as antigovernment protesters managed to block the completion of national elections on Feb. 2.
The group was formed in the aftermath of the 2006 coup, and broadly supports the Shinawatra clan and their populist policies.
After a pro-Thaksin government was removed from power for alleged election violations, tens of thousands of Red Shirt members converged on Bangkok in 2010 to demand a new vote, occupying much of the city center for nearly two months.
More than 90 people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces, the vast majority of them Red Shirt members. Key Red Shirt leaders have warned that the group could again march on Bangkok if Ms. Yingluck is overthrown.
—Warangkana Chomchuen contributed to this article.
Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

Go here to read the rest: Three Killed in Thailand Blast