Thai police said on Sunday they foiled plot to assassinate the
country’s prime minister after seizing a weapons cache belonging to a
fugitive anti-junta activist.
It is the latest discovery of a weapons stockpile belonging to a member
of the red shirt movement, a political group loyal to exiled Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Police on Saturday found dozens of rifles and grenades, and thousands of
rounds of ammunition, at a house belonging to red shirt leader
Wuthipong Kochathamakun, who has been on the run since the military
coup.
Police also arrested nine men in connection with the arms seizure,
saying they had clear evidence the suspects and their extended network
were aiming to cause unrest.
“We found a rifle with a scope. We guarantee that this is not to shoot
at birds but was going to be used to assassinate the leader of the
country,” National Police Chief Jakthip Chaijinda told reporters on
Sunday, referring to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.
Prayuth, then the army chief, overthrew the government of Thaksin’s
sister Yingluck in a 2014 coup. His junta discovered dozens of weapon
caches belonging to groups they said were loyal to the Shinawatra clan,
reports Reuters.
Police chief Jakthip presented no other evidence of an assassination
plot, but said Wuthipong and his network had always opposed the junta
and the group had predicted on social media that the prime minister
would be killed.
Police said the group was planning an ambush if officials had continued
their operations against a influential nearby Buddhist temple, which is
seen as having close ties to Thaksin.
Thai police ended their search of the Dhammakaya temple earlier this
month after laying siege to it for more than three weeks without finding
the former abbot, who is wanted for suspected money-laundering.
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