Bangkok hospital bomb leaves 24 injured
Print Edition
A bomb at a hospital in the Thai capital wounded 24 people on the third anniversary of a 2014 military coup, the government said, with the army chief blaming groups opposed to the junta.
There was no claim of responsibility for the blast at the Phramongkutklao Hospital in Bangkok, which is popular with soldiers and their families and retired military officers.
“We found the pieces that were used to make the bomb,” said Kamthorn Aucharoen, commander of the police’s explosive ordnance team. “Right now, authorities are checking out closed circuit cameras.”
Government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said 24 people were wounded. Most were hit by flying glass.
Suspicion is likely to focus either on political dissidents opposed to military rule or Muslim separatists based in the south of the predominately Buddhist country.
Army chief Chalermchai Sittisart blamed groups opposed to the junta.
“It doesn’t have to be the junta anniversary. People who don’t like the junta, given the chance, will do this,” Chalermchai said.
Deputy national police chief General Srivara Rangsibrahmanakul said the bomb had been hidden in a container near the entrance of a pharmacy.
The May 22, 2014, military coup toppled a democratically elected government and ended months of unrest, including sometimes deadly street demonstrations. The junta said it needed to take power to restore order and usher in political reforms.
Former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose government was ejected in the 2014 coup, called for a swift return to democracy in a Facebook post yesterday, adding that the economy had been hit hard.
Thailand’s export-dependent economy is showing signs of recovery after three years.
Since the coup, the junta, known as the National Council for Peace and Order, has clamped down on dissent and ramped up prosecutions under sedition and royal defamation laws.
The military has always played a prominent role in Thai life but since the coup it has become embedded in society.
The military government has acknowledged it wants to weaken political parties and maintain permanent influence over elected governments, partly through a new constitution approved by the king last month. An election is due by the end of next year.
The blast comes weeks after a car bomb at a shopping center in the province of Pattani, near Thailand’s border with Malaysia, which wounded 61 people. The authorities blamed on the Muslim insurgents.
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