Sondhi Limthongkul
Posted on 04/16/2009 9:18:56 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Sondhi Limthongkul, the founder of the political movement which overran Bangkok’s airport last year, is in hospital after a gunman wielding an AK-47 ambushed his car at a petrol station and sprayed it with bullets early this morning.
Sondhi Limthongkul
The unknown number of gunmen shot out the tyres of the car owned by Mr Sondhi, the head of the People’s Alliance for Democracy ‘yellow shirt’ movement, and riddled the vehicle with bullets. Stray bullets also hit a nearby public bus.
The tycoon’s media network reported that more than 100 bullets were fired, and 57 AKA and M16 shells were found around the car. Mr Sondhi's bodyguard and his driver were also injured, his driver seriously.
A spokesperson for Bangkok’s Wachira Hospital said Mr Sondhi, 61, had been wounded in the head, and had gone into surgery for a three-hour operation. The spokesperson said shrapnel from a bullet hit Mr Sondhi in forehead but, before surgery to remove the shrapnel and stem the bleeding in his brain, he was conscious and lucid.
Mr Sondhi's PAD movement, which effectively forced a change of government in Thailand late last year, has been careful to stay out of the recent crisis which has convulsed Bangkok.
Yet PAD followers are now furious, and it remains unclear whether there will now be some form of mass response to the assassination attempt.
PAD spokesman Panthep Puapongpan condemned those behind the attack, and said it was wrong to think that killing Mr Sondhi would end the PAD, because the yellow shirts founder had set up a network to keep the movement alive.
The professed royalists of the PAD support the current Thai government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and oppose the former Prime Minister, ousted and exiled billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, and his
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
THAILAND?
“We need our Freeper Thai analysts to comment on this”
Free speech in Thailand is hazardous. Anything that reflects even slightly on the current monarchy, with whom these yellow-shirts are aligned, can bring 10 years in prison.
Too bad they missed him. If at first you don't succeed, try try again...
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