Guards at protest quarrelled before shooting: deputy PM
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The initial police investigation into the shooting on Sunday of two growers serving as guards for the rubber growers' protest in Nakhon Si Thammarat has revealed that witnesses saw them arguing prior to the incident, deputy Prime Minister Pol Gen Pracha P
The shooting resulted in one of the guards dying and the other being severely injured.
The gunpowder test on the injured man also found that the shots were fired at close range, leading police to think it was not done by state officials, as some protesters suspect, Pracha said.
He said the officials were camped 10 kilometres away from the protest site and there was no reason for them to shoot.
Pracha instructed police to make the facts of the investigation available to the Thai public and make it clear that the protest site was tightly guarded thus making it impossible for outsiders or officials to get in and cause the alleged attack.
He also urged the Justice Ministry’s Rights and Liberties Protection Department chief Police Colonel Narat Sawettanant to visit the site and provide assistance of Bt100,000 to the family of the deceased individual.
