Government set to prevent disruption at Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting

BANGKOK, March 26 (TNA) – The Thai authorities have planned security measures ahead of the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly which opens in Bangkok on Saturday, and the anti-government Red Shirt protesters will step up their campaign to bring pressure on the government.

Acting government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO) discussed the Red Shirt’s revised plan for Saturday which may affect the IPU meeting although the protesters pledged not to surround and block the meeting venue as hosting the international meeting is important for Thailand’s image.

More than 1,000 participants from 153 countries will attend the meeting at the Centara Grand Hotel March 27 to April 1.

The CAPO meeting agreed to cooperate with organisers and the police to work together in providing security and reported adjusting of security measures in the capital by setting up 13 checkpoints at key areas after series of explosions occurred.

Meanwhile, police said a M-67 grenade was found on Friday in a bag at the Attorney General’s Office, but it was successfully defused. Closed circuit television monitors are now being checked for images. It was the latest in a string of bomb attacks which took place in recent days at several government offices.

Police investigators have not concluded which groups are linked to several recent grenade attacks, while the government has denied involvement in the incidents.

Following a number of grenade and bomb incidents in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd, also representing CAPO, said that acting national police chief Pol Gen Patheep Tanprasert asked CAPO to boost security measures on 68 expressways across Bangkok which are considered high-risk areas.

Col Sansern explained it is believed that the assailants are firing grenades from expressways to their targets.

The spokesman said CAPO will coordinate with the Expressway Authority of Thailand (EAT) to examine its 180 closed circuit televisions (CCTV), as well as 26 CCTVs on the Don Mueang Tollway to use in the investigation.

Nearly 70 checkpoints will be set up on expressways after unknown attackers used expressways as locations to fire grenades at key government offices to discredit the government, Col Sansern said.

The attack is unlikely to target any individuals, so the public should not be alarmed, he said.

According to CAPO, 12 explosions occurred in Bangkok, Nonthaburi and Samut Prakan and four others in the northern province of Chiang Mai after the Internal Security Act (ISA) was put in place on March 11 and extended until March 30. (TNA)