Bangkok: Assailants Fired M-79 Grenades At Sala Daeng Skytrain Station

[earthpig]

The claim that the grenades were fired from behind the red shirt baracades seems to be a bit iffy.

All we know was that at least three of them hit the platform area on Saladaeng BTS. So, is there really a straight shot to fire a grenade from the opposite side of the flyover where the reds are located, over ( or under) the footbridge where all the army & police are stationed, then avoiding the concrete supports of the skytrain and land of the platform? And not get lucky with this shot once but three times?

Or is it more likely that the grenades were fired from closer and from above down onto the platform and roof of the BTS?

Absolutely right.

Not to mention the interesting contradiction between grenades fired from Lumpini Park but then these "terrorists" arrested near Robinson Department store? We are to believe that the perps fired their grenades from behind red barricades, then came across to enemy territory to turn themselves in?

AND TAKE A LOOK AT THE PHOTO SHOWING THE ARRESTED "TERRORIST" WITH HIS RED HAT! Anybody who has been to Silom in recent days knows full well that nobody would or could wear a red hat there, even before the bomb blasts. I bet u that photo is pure hollywood.

On the evidence, the murderers of these people at silom arent the Reds. The fact that the grenades were fired at innocent multicolors/yellows or at the army or both suggests strongly that the perpetrators are trying to incite public opinion to take decisive military action against the Reds.

The finger points at ancien regime paramilitary forces who regard the defense of their interests as trumping human life. This is a taste of what is to come if the army attacks the Reds, thereby inducing them to take up arms in a broad insurgency against the goverment.

This is a very ominous event for all living in thailand.

[draftvader]

Just a small suggestion for people's safety. Remembering that a Red Shirt or a Yellow Shirt is not a "shirt" until they put one on. If I were in the position they are in I would have planned "distractions" for this juncture. This could involve sudden appearance of Red Shirt groups at other locations in the city to draw away the focus from the centre. We all picture an organic spread of the violence, this might not be the case.

Obviously this forum will keep us informed. This is our lives we are talking about here, sod the politics.

Good luck all.

[sbk]

Stupid tasteless jokes have been deleted. Do try to recall that people are dead. Have a bit of human empathy.

[thaibkk]

when will this crazy thing end ?

can PM not ask israel mossad to get a certain person accidently killed ?

they did it recently ...

[otherstuff1957]

Latest news seems to be that some suspects were arrested. That'd be good news, assuming it was based on some evidence. Of course under martial law they can arrest pretty much anyone so it'll seem like something is being done.

So far authorities have been very ineffecive finding terrorists launching grenades and protecting the public. Almost to the point where you wonder if they even want to find them.

According to the other newspaper, the five suspects have been released.

[anotherpeter]

Went to bed early last night and missed all this. Logged on to the forum this morning and started reading this thread. Usual stuff.....ridiculous statements from both sides. Opinion posing as fact...evidence not required. Watched a bit of TV---France 24, Aljazeera etc. Nobody is taking responsibility for the grenade attacks.... amazing, what a surprise. Obviously the networks have not consulted with Thaivisa....fountain of knowledge and current intelligence.

So far there is no real evidence to support any of the statements that the reds fired, nor is there any evidence of any kind (that I have seen) to support statement that they did not. Whoever fired them it seems pretty clear that the aim was to provoke a bloody reaction and get a lot of people killed and injured. That is all we can reasonably assume at this point. In the meantime we are on track for 40-50 pages of the usual finger pointing, name calling and generally uncivilized behavior. I pity the moderators, I don't know how they can keep from just shutting down every one of you that engages day after day in this same bloody nonsense. We could have a civil exchange about the problems facing this country, but there are hard core opinionated individuals on here who will not allow that to take place....and then there is the legion of one liners who have no real opinion and have absolutely nothing useful to say, but insist on cluttering up the threads with illuminating offerings like "idiot" or "you don't know what you'r talking about" ...these people even annoy the Trolls. If push comes to shove I would prefer a good creative and articulate Troll to someone who just spits instead of saying something.

It's quite interesting to go back and read what was being posted back in mid March.... just about all of it was nonsense ...not all, but most. Here we are 6 weeks later and nothing much has changed....except for about 30 dead and maybe 1000 injured people....and nobody really KNOWS who killed who.

Handing it all back to the forum military strategists and political commentators now.....Thank you for your time.

Vicco, you're right.

There is no chance of a civil exchange of thoughts and ideas.

At one extreme end you have the posters that hate Thaksin. At the other, they hate the military/elite oppressing the poor.

And the majority in the middle that see problems with both sides, but favour one side over the other to move Thailand forward.

But as soon as someone posts anything that is even slightly either side of the centre, they are immediately tagged as being at one of the extreme ends.

Even with the protests, you see the same. Initially the red protests had the extremists, that want Thaksin back, and the moderates that want better help for the poor. Now the the anti-red protests have the extremists, that want the elite in control, and the moderates that don't like Thaksin but just want the reds to go home and wait for elections so life can get back to normal.

The moderates on both sides want basically the same thing, they just either believe their side is best the best side to do that, or that the other side won't.

It's the extremists on both sides that are continuously causing problems.

[fxe1200]

You are a hardcore defender of red violence.

Show me where I've defended violence. I haven't. But you and yours continue spreading lies.

You have joined Thai Visa on April 18th this year - just five days ago - and already written 118 posts.

I assume you are detached by the Reds to manipultae our forums. If you keep up abusing Thai Visa by spreading falsehood, I am willing to promote you as the new Minister for Propaganda![/b]

[chantorn]

...one pink shirt was seen beating up a red shirt at the SkyTrain station...

That's a good start.

Why are you pro-violence?

RED mobs is clearly illegal. They will get it (jail) when the smoke settled.

All other mobs (YELLOW/BLUE/PINK/WHITE/MULTI/SILOM) are clearly legal, as they oppose the illegal one.

Also the police/army needs the SILOM mobs as they shower them with gifts and donations.

Did the police / army try to disperse the SILOM mops? No.

[barky]

The only thing I know about this mess is that I don't know anything. Too many players, too many plots.

I have reached that point as well. Logic and reasoning left the scene long ago.

I am starting to get to that point too.

I/we don't really know a lot of things.We may never know who threw the bombs. It would seem that a number of factions have reason to stoke the fire: reds, yellows,army, etc. I won't add the police to this list because they will not do anything because they don't have to. They can just sit back and when all the dust settles they just carry on autonimously making their corrupt monies.

However, I might add that I believe it was their responsibility to put a stop to all this 5-6 weeks ago and not allow it to escalate. But, it's gone far beyond that now.

I also think the PM has lost control. Or, maybe it's part of a master plan for the army to take over (temporarily maybe)...speculation.

Nevertheless, for many reasons, including business, tourism, investor confidence etc this must all stop now.It will be years before Thailand can dig itself out of the hole its dug for itself in terms of respect, prestigue and finance.

The fact is every person regardless of political affiliation or foreigner who gets injured or worse, killed, is simply one too many. But, unfortunately those fighting for control of the country and therfore the all important coffers will see all these deaths and injuries as collateral damage and nothing more....no matter what they may say in condemnation.

In the end, my money's on the ones with the most money... the elite, who will pay the army to secure power on their behalf.

I live in Phaya Thai area and I work on Silom Rd near Sala Daeng and I am a long term resident and a stake-holder in Thailand, so I have a vested interest in peace and prosperity reigning in this seemingly God forsaken country.

But, I am fully aware that I and almost everybody here on TV have no say in the matter, no matter how wise we think we are. I/we can maybe try to offer a different, out-siders perspective on the issue to the Thais aroud us who may "lend us an ear" , or I/we can either leave the country or try to avoid getting caught up in the mess.

[anotherpeter]

The claim that the grenades were fired from behind the red shirt baracades seems to be a bit iffy.

All we know was that at least three of them hit the platform area on Saladaeng BTS. So, is there really a straight shot to fire a grenade from the opposite side of the flyover where the reds are located, over ( or under) the footbridge where all the army & police are stationed, then avoiding the concrete supports of the skytrain and land of the platform? And not get lucky with this shot once but three times?

Or is it more likely that the grenades were fired from closer and from above down onto the platform and roof of the BTS?

Actually, as the BTS crosses Rama IV from Sukhumvit, it turns to the right. That means there is a direct line from the Rama V statue in the entrance to Lumpini Park where the reds are based down Silom Rd.

[thefusilier]

You are a hardcore defender of red violence.

Show me where I've defended violence. I haven't. But you and yours continue spreading lies.

You have joined Thai Visa on April 18th this year - just five days ago - and already written 118 posts.

I assume you are detached by the Reds to manipultae our forums. If you keep up abusing Thai Visa by spreading falsehood, I am willing to promote you as the new Minister for Propaganda![/b]

There are a couple pro-red posters (spammers) who just coincidently joined within the last week or two.

Interesting...

[Xangsamhua]

My Thai wife and I were both Abhisit supporters until last week. It's become obvious now that he's incapable of solving this national crisis and should go -- immediately -- by whatever means. What's happening in BKK right now is disgusting! They could have spent $10 million on an Israeli ex-commando and taken Thaksin out long ago and this mess would never have happened. In fact, they could STILL do that, yet they don't! Why Abhisit thinks he has to be polite and "Thai" and negotiate in this situation is beyond comprehension. Further, Abhisit has totally failed to get the PR out to the foreign media for his side. The reds are doing a fantastic job of int'l PR on the other hand. Much of the foreign press actually seem to think the Reds are a legitimate grass roots movement and that the Democrats are actually the bad guys. <deleted>? How can they let that happen???

My wife hates the reds more than anything but now she's saying let's call elections right now, and of course Thaksin's red cronies will win via their usual cheating and vote buying, and soon Thaksin will return to take over as de facto dictator for life and rapidly turn Thailand into a backwater rivaling Cambodia and Burma. Som nom na to all the poor uneducated issan peasants who supported that crook. It's a shame most Thais will never have the option to leave like my wife and I will, not to mention, they will never have the option to get rid of him either.

As I typed this my wife just sent removed Abhisit as her friend on Facebook. She's pissed

You may be right, clockwise. My wife and I feel the same way. However, it's not all lost yet.

The events in Silom are just a sideshow to the main game. The organised PAD still have to come out, and at this point, no one's actually "won", though the reds are in the box seat. I can't see the PAD coming out for a fight - they're not that kind of movement - but they are strong tacticians and may have some aces up their sleeves that will leave the reds wondering what to do next.

If this matter isn't at least partly resolved in the next three days, next week will be very interesting.

(Having said that, most of my prophecies turn out to be wrong. )

[rreddin]

Of course it was the reds. They have threatened this. Red shirt apologists, you should be ashamed.

I deplore violence by any body. It is not the way to solve problems.

So far the security forces have refrained from blaming any party for this unwarranted attack, probably because they do not know who is responsible. The situation is complex. There are criminal gangs using the protests as a cover to settle old scores, and there are other groups with a grievance against the government - most notably the separatists from the southernmost provinces. The government have accused them of being involved in the violence in Bangkok. Then, of course, there are the rival groups such as PAD, the pink shirts and the no colour shirts who want the government to use force to remove the UDD protesters. Then there are the blue shirts and possibly some disaffected military. There are plenty of groups who would like to see the UDD supporters blamed for this atrocity to further their own ends.

These attacks are different to all the others that the UDD has been accused of. The others were on "soft" targets at a time when nobody was about. Contrast that with the separatists' indiscriminate bombings in Bangkok and the southern provinces that were intended to and did cause large numbers of casualties. I am not saying that the separatists were responsible, just that these attacks do not fit the previous pattern.

So Jingthing, you are entitled to your prejudices. However, making unfounded accusations - based purely on your prejudices - is unhelpful at best.

[traderjm]

You are a hardcore defender of red violence.

Show me where I've defended violence. I haven't. But you and yours continue spreading lies.

You have joined Thai Visa on April 18th this year - just five days ago - and already written 118 posts.

I assume you are detached by the Reds to manipultae our forums. If you keep up abusing Thai Visa by spreading falsehood, I am willing to promote you as the new Minister for Propaganda![/b]

There are a couple pro-red posters (spammers) who just coincidently joined within the last week or two.

Interesting...

I was thinking the word predictable might be more apt

[chantorn]

Just a small suggestion for people's safety. Remembering that a Red Shirt or a Yellow Shirt is not a "shirt" until they put one on. If I were in the position they are in I would have planned "distractions" for this juncture. This could involve sudden appearance of Red Shirt groups at other locations in the city to draw away the focus from the centre. We all picture an organic spread of the violence, this might not be the case.

Obviously this forum will keep us informed. This is our lives we are talking about here, sod the politics.

Good luck all.

The "Various colour shirt" or the "Multi colour shirt" occupied the whole color spectrum. If I do not support them, What should I wear?

At home I should be OK. But if I have to go out, do I have to strip naked? Or wear something like a clear plastic sheet?

(I still miss Gayson Plaza).

[chantorn]

My Thai wife and I were both Abhisit supporters until last week. It's become obvious now that he's incapable of solving this national crisis and should go -- immediately -- by whatever means. What's happening in BKK right now is disgusting! They could have spent $10 million on an Israeli ex-commando and taken Thaksin out long ago and this mess would never have happened. In fact, they could STILL do that, yet they don't! Why Abhisit thinks he has to be polite and "Thai" and negotiate in this situation is beyond comprehension. Further, Abhisit has totally failed to get the PR out to the foreign media for his side. The reds are doing a fantastic job of int'l PR on the other hand. Much of the foreign press actually seem to think the Reds are a legitimate grass roots movement and that the Democrats are actually the bad guys. <deleted>? How can they let that happen???

My wife hates the reds more than anything but now she's saying let's call elections right now, and of course Thaksin's red cronies will win via their usual cheating and vote buying, and soon Thaksin will return to take over as de facto dictator for life and rapidly turn Thailand into a backwater rivaling Cambodia and Burma. Som nom na to all the poor uneducated issan peasants who supported that crook. It's a shame most Thais will never have the option to leave like my wife and I will, not to mention, they will never have the option to get rid of him either.

As I typed this my wife just sent removed Abhisit as her friend on Facebook. She's pissed

You may be right, clockwise. My wife and I feel the same way. However, it's not all lost yet.

The events in Silom are just a sideshow to the main game. The organised PAD still have to come out, and at this point, no one's actually "won", though the reds are in the box seat. I can't see the PAD coming out for a fight - they're not that kind of movement - but they are strong tacticians and may have some aces up their sleeves that will leave the reds wondering what to do next.

If this matter isn't at least partly resolved in the next three days, next week will be very interesting.

(Having said that, most of my prophecies turn out to be wrong. )

Better fly out before PAD gets in. You know where they are heading.

[draftvader]

Just a small suggestion for people's safety. Remembering that a Red Shirt or a Yellow Shirt is not a "shirt" until they put one on. If I were in the position they are in I would have planned "distractions" for this juncture. This could involve sudden appearance of Red Shirt groups at other locations in the city to draw away the focus from the centre. We all picture an organic spread of the violence, this might not be the case.

Obviously this forum will keep us informed. This is our lives we are talking about here, sod the politics.

Good luck all.

The "Various colour shirt" or the "Multi colour shirt" occupied the whole color spectrum. If I do not support them, What should I wear?

At home I should be OK. But if I have to go out, do I have to strip naked? Or wear something like a clear plastic sheet?

(I still miss Gayson Plaza).

That clear plastic sheet will set you back B10,000 at Gaysorn you know

[sbk]

Given the highly inflammatory nature of some posts and posters in the News forum, we are instituting a zero tolerance policy with regards to posting inflammatory comments, comments advocating violence, trollish comments, and flames. You will receive an automatic posting rights suspension for this behavior in the News forum. Bear that in mind when posting

[rreddin]

You are a hardcore defender of red violence.

Show me where I've defended violence. I haven't. But you and yours continue spreading lies.

You have joined Thai Visa on April 18th this year - just five days ago - and already written 118 posts.

I assume you are detached by the Reds to manipultae our forums. If you keep up abusing Thai Visa by spreading falsehood, I am willing to promote you as the new Minister for Propaganda![/b]

There are a couple pro-red posters (spammers) who just coincidently joined within the last week or two.

Interesting...

Part of a degree course I took involved the study of how successful forums, such as this one, work. The common factors were that the moderators fequently introduced controversial topics for discussion knowing that it would engender strongly held views and a lot of posts. The study also found that all forums rely on a small "hard core" or reguar posters. Does that sound familiar?

The other finding was that all successful forums continually need to attract new members to replace those who leave or become inactive. We were all new members of this forum at one time; and, we all have our personal views that we are free to express within the rules of the forum. Let us all remeber that. If new members are deterred from joining, this forum may as well be a closed thread.

[aussimike]

Of course it was the reds. They have threatened this. Red shirt apologists, you should be ashamed.

Where is your proof that the red shirts are responsible? You're ASSUMING. Don't confuse people with lies before you have facts, please. Nobody knows who attacked who tonight. Nobody knows who launched the bombs.

the logic of people saying that the REDS did this is just the sort of response that is to be expected and wanted by those opposed the them - just another reason to send in the army with all its might and remove them -- there are so many good stories coming from the govt side - like no live bulllets used on saturday and then 24 hours later a senior ARMY doctor stated that those killed where hit by live rounds --- just who is going to keep believing all this missinformation -

for all we know it could be a faction of the yellows just trying to accelarate the situation or even the so called peace loving pinks -- what next - maybe the rainbow warriors --- but to have everyone jumping on the anti red band wagon and point the fingerr - come on -- believe 20% of what u read -- and then divide by 2 --

the fact is that the whole truth will never come out and what ever sided did it - shame on them - but lets hold off to judge - i still for one dont thnk the reds had anything to gain apart from turning more people against them and what they really want is more support - so why the hel_l would they do this - ???? these sort of actions will turn everyone against them --

[LevelHead]

Sadly the TV forum is filled with too many people who have no idea about things "Thai" and who sit in Ivory Towers dictating they know everything and the Army will do this and the police that.

If you watch the link below you can see :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd1loe_us...top-201004_news

Multicolor shirts have come looking for a fight, they are throwing bottles and objects at Reds.

Police move in to move them back.

Mutlicolors attack police.

Police push them back while under attack from them.

Then you see the Mullticolors are in front of "Army" lines.

The multicolors retreat and finally run behind the army lines while chased by the police.

Army did nothing to stop them or apprehend them.

With regards to the attacks by grenades, all violence is wrong. People getting killed is sad and not right. However, if the leaders of the PAD/Yellow had not invoked the "Multicolor" protests again these deaths would have been avoided. That does not take anything away from whoever fired the grenades (very likely a third hand), but as ever, it takes two to tango.

So at blame here are :

1/ Army for letting them incite the reds.

2/ Police for letting them incite the reds.

3/ Leaders of Yellow who incited the multicolor groups.

4/ Whoever shot the grenades.

5/ Reds for being there.

6/ Elite/Democrats for all the ills they have done from the coup in 2006 culminating into where we are today.

Everyone is at fault

[chantorn]

Robinson's is based out of Singapore, so clearly this is a Temasek-related Thaksin plot and the soldiers work for Lee Kuan Yew! Certainly someone must have put together this conspiracy theory by now as it's no more strained than half of what's out there (including the conflicting accounts you quoted and queried about, which I wondered about as well, heh).

As Chaimai said, "I have reached that point as well. Logic and reasoning left the scene long ago." That about sums it up. At this point all I know how to do is watch this unfold from a distance.

I don't think the Singapore Robinson & Thai Robinson are related.

http://www.set.or.th/set/companyholder.do?...&country=US

Looking at the shareholding, it belong to the Central Group.

Nice try.

[JGV]

In reply to Che

Maybe he/she should consider what is the role of government

I thought one of its roles was to maintain law and order

Surely marching on the military and the police - refusing to disperse and occupying an area in a city thus preventing normal business to continue constitiutes a breakdown of law and order. Therefore the reaction by the military is predictable at the very least

[BKMITCH]

I feel sorry for the Thais that have suffered because of a few who want to change what the majority is ok with. To spill blood is not the answer. If you don't like the present government, vote it out when election come up. I don't see how anythngs is going to change by getting innocent people killed.

[anotherpeter]

Once the parliament is dissolved, how long is it before elections MUST be held? ie 3 or 6 months after dissolution.

[Deeral]

good article here..........Japanese Times

[Deeral]

I feel sorry for the Thais that have suffered because of a few who want to change what the majority is ok with. To spill blood is not the answer. If you don't like the present government, vote it out when election come up. I don't see how anythngs is going to change by getting innocent people killed.

an election would give a majority to the Redshirts and their supporters.

[Chaimai]

I feel sorry for the Thais that have suffered because of a few who want to change what the majority is ok with. To spill blood is not the answer. If you don't like the present government, vote it out when election come up. I don't see how anythngs is going to change by getting innocent people killed.

an election would give a majority to the Redshirts and their supporters.

So be it - THAT is democracy.

[chantorn]

Sadly the TV forum is filled with too many people who have no idea about things "Thai" and who sit in Ivory Towers dictating they know everything and the Army will do this and the police that.

If you watch the link below you can see :

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd1loe_us...top-201004_news

Multicolor shirts have come looking for a fight, they are throwing bottles and objects at Reds.

Police move in to move them back.

Mutlicolors attack police.

Police push them back while under attack from them.

Then you see the Mullticolors are in front of "Army" lines.

The multicolors retreat and finally run behind the army lines while chased by the police.

Army did nothing to stop them or apprehend them.

With regards to the attacks by grenades, all violence is wrong. People getting killed is sad and not right. However, if the leaders of the PAD/Yellow had not invoked the "Multicolor" protests again these deaths would have been avoided. That does not take anything away from whoever fired the grenades (very likely a third hand), but as ever, it takes two to tango.

So at blame here are :

1/ Army for letting them incite the reds.

2/ Police for letting them incite the reds.

3/ Leaders of Yellow who incited the multicolor groups.

4/ Whoever shot the grenades.

5/ Reds for being there.

6/ Elite/Democrats for all the ills they have done from the coup in 2006 culminating into where we are today.

Everyone is at fault

Thanks. This clip will be BANNED from public TV especially NBT. I can bet on it.

[Thai at Heart]

On-On, Robinson belongs to Central Pattana Group and is Thai. It has no connections to Temasek group of Singapore, or from ownership structure, any obvious Singaporean connections.

Today, the Robinsons Group is part of the Al-Futtaim Group, which comprises a diverse range of strategically positioned operating subsidiaries and associate companies in the Gulf region. Established in the 1930s as a trading business, Al-Futtaim is one of the most progressive regional business houses, with headquarters in Dubai, UAE.

http://www.robinsons.com.sg/corporate_abtu...HPSESSID=4ae192

Robinsons is a division of Central. Some interesting investors.

http://www.robinson.co.th/investors-bigboard-eng.html

CENTRAL RETIAL CORPORATION LTD. 308,162,660 27.75

2. C.R.G. SERVICE CO., LTD. 289,645,488 26.08

3. GOLDMAN SACHS & CO 145,532,953 13.10

4. THAILAND SECURITIES DEPOSITORY CO., LTD FOR DEPOSITOR 67,786,904 6.10

5. HSBC (SINGAPORE) NOMINEES PTE LTD 56,250,690 5.07

6. CREDIT SUISSE SINGAPORE BRANCH 51,992,765 4.68

7. STATE STREET BANK AND TRUST COMPANY 25,706,255 2.32

8. STATE STREET BANK AND TRUST COMPANY FOR AUSTRALIA 16,250,800 1.46

9. CHASE NOMINEES LIMITED 42 15,265,100 1.37

10. VIELLA ASSETS LTD.

1979 Robinson Department Store opened its first branch at Victory Monument.

1992 Robinson became the first department store company listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 3 January 1992.

1995 The Central Retail Corporation group joined Robinson as a major shareholder and was jointly

established CR Thailand Co., Ltd. in order to develop provincial department stores under the

“Robinson” brand. Later, the Company proceeded to open new stores up to 20 stores.

Doesn't say that Central founded it though. Therefore, I reckon it was started by Robinsons in Singapore and the name sold to Central for use in Thailand.