Police stop protesters as they march towards Government House in Bangkok – PHOTOS
Protesters started their march from the Democracy Monument on Rajdamnoen Avenue toward the Government House around 3pm today. But they were barred from passing an intersection for an hour. They were prevented from passing the Panfah Lilas intersection where police had set up a blockade and had hundreds of police there to enforce the blacking of the intersection. The police presence today was high with police being brought in from districts outside Bangkok to bolster the local ranks.
At this stage the protest and march have remained largely peaceful. Estimates of the crowd size range from 1,000 up to 3,000.
Police were also dressed up in yellow shirts and given Thai flags to wave in support of a royal motorcade which is scheduled to use the same route this evening. Truck loads of yellow-shirt clad police and ‘royal’ supporters were captured on social media as they were being trucked in on Bangkok’s expressways, in contravention of the traffic laws, earlier today.
The ‘spoiler’ protest was peaceful with the yellow-shirted ‘royalists sitting peacefully along the roadsides.
Protest leaders negotiated with police and were eventually allowed to pass and progress towards Government House to continue their 1 kilometre march from the Democracy Monument.
Protesters are continuing their demands for parliamentary and constitutional reform.
According to Thai PBS World, protesters ignored warnings by police who instructed them to turn around and head back to the Democracy Monument. Police warned the rally participants that their gathering was “unauthorised and was in violation of the law on public gatherings”.
Hundreds of policemen separated the ‘yellow shirted’ royal supporter who were lining the streets along the route of a scheduled royal motorcade.
HM the King is scheduled to preside over a religious ceremony at the Emerald Buddha Temple early this evening. Earlier it was reported that His Majesty was to attend a University graduation ceremony. The clash of times and the route of the 2 simultaneous events hasn’t been lost on Thai social media which is following this afternoon’s activities with great interest.
SOURCE: Thai PBS World
PHOTO: Nation Thailand
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