Hunt for guards in attack

Police are looking at security camera footage of anti-government rally guards, who reportedly attacked a police officer in a Bangkok alley near Democracy Monument on Friday night. 

Meanwhile, spokesman of the Democrat Party-led rally, Ekkanat Prompan, claimed the guards found two suspicious-looking men carrying guns, who later identified themselves as police officers. He said the duo failed to identify themselves initially and resisted the guards’ attempts to bring them to the backstage, leading to the assault. 

Pol Maj-General Chayut Thanathaweerat, deputy chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau, said Samranrat police had interviewed the injured Pol Sub-Lieutenant Chira Chaemsrichan and another policeman, Police Sgt-Major Samreung Reukngam, and were now looking at security camera footage to identify the attackers. 

Police are also working on another case where rally guards allegedly attacked Pol Senior Sgt-Major Chamnian Hongthai on Rajadamnoen Avenue on November 7, although the court did not approve the police’s previous two arrest warrants for the suspect.

Meanwhile, Police Maj-Gen Rasadakorn Yingyong, chief of the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s Division 8, yesterday presented a flower basket and some assistance money to the injured policeman at Police General Hospital. Chira was recovering and would be released from hospital in 4-5 days.

Chira told Rasadakorn that he and Samreung were stationed near the Khok Wua intersection when Samreuk went to buy a meal on his own. Chira later received a “Line” message that Samreung was captured and his weapon seized at the intersection so Chira went to look for him. Being unarmed, Chira walked into the protest site to look for Samreung on Tanao Road and had a meal near the Chaopor Seu Shrine while taking photos with his i-Phone, he said. A guard, identified only as “Kaew”, and 10 others tried to seize his phone, but he resisted so they dragged him to an alley and assaulted him, he said. They then brought Chira, who had sustained bruises on the face, head and body as well as a broken tooth, to the rally’s backstage to “record his story”.

Deputy Bangkok Governor Pol General Asawin Kwanmuang ran into them, criticised and told the guards to send Chira to their fellow policemen at the Khok Wua intersection. Chira said he had later learned that his supervisors had negotiated Samreung’s safe release.

Saying he had instructed Metropolitan Police Bureau’s Division 8 officers not to carry a gun, so as to prevent escalation with protesters, Rasadakorn said police would proceed with legal action and punish the culprits who had “over-reacted” and assaulted the cop. He urged protesters to express their political power within the legal frame and the rally leaders to find the police-assaulting guards for punishment. 

Meanwhile, Pol Maj-General Piya Uthayo, Peacekeeping Operations Centre spokesman, yesterday reported that national police chief Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew, on a recent video-conference, had instructed the Metropolitan Police, Provincial Police Region 1-9 and the Southern Border Provinces Police Operation Centre to follow the nation-wide protest movement closely. 

Urging police to watch out for some ill-intentioned people trying to incite and escalate the protest as per police intelligence, Adul also urged police to probe the November 15 attack in which an ill-intentioned person in a car shot pepper spray at traffic police at Phitsanulok Road’s Wang Daeng intersection. He urged people joining the rally, who spotted violation of law or were invited by ill-intentioned people to break the law, to alert police hotline 191 and 1599 around the clock.