Thailand News 2014: Bangkok Explosions Kill Two As Bloodshed Continues
After months of unrest in Thailand, the bloodshed has continued and the casualty count has not not stopped rising. Anti-government protestors have been the targets of various attacks and, despite the repeated calls for the removal of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the government has done very little to protect them. Their repeated calls for discipline and tranquility has been shown to fall on deaf ears with this deadly attack.
The latest attack happened early on Sunday at a demonstration near the Central World shopping mall, reports the BBC. According to their report, two people have been killed, a 12-year-old boy and a 40-year-old woman. Sathit Wongnongtoey, a protest leader, told the BBC the explosion was from a grenade and happened close by a stage of the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), which has asked Ms. Yingluck to resign.
She has denounced the attacks and has called them terrorist acts. According to the BBC, she has called for a full investigation of the attacks. "I would like to ask all sides of the political divide that we may see things differently and there are many ways to express those differences," Yingluck said, according to CNN. "But the use of violence that lead to deaths are not the civilized way of the living."
However, she refuses to step down. This has not been the first attack against protestors. Last week another grenade explosion killed six protestors and last night a gunman opened fired into another protest, killing a 5-year-old girl and wounding 34 others, reports CNN. The attacks targeting anti-government protestors have continued even after the Feb. 2 elections.
"Although we have lost several friends in these attacks, I would like to insist that we follow our course of peaceful, unarmed, and nonviolent demonstrations," opposition party leader Suthep Thaugsuban said in a statement on Facebook. "We are on the right course. We are fighting the good fight. Please carry on as we have."