Sondhi Shot

[Guest Astrrro]

The founder of Thailand's "yellow shirt" protest movement, which was behind the week-long occupation of Bangkok's main airports late last year, was shot and wounded early this morning.

 

The car of Sondhi Limthongkul was attacked in a petrol station near the central bank around 5am local time (2200 GMT on Thursday), a spokesman for his People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) said.

 

The PAD was not part of the latest political violence in Thailand over the past week, which involved the red-shirted supporters of Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister ousted in a coup in 2006 and now living in self-imposed exile.

 

The PAD is an extra-parliamentary group of royalists, academics, former military people and Bangkok's middle classes united in their loathing of Thaksin, a former telecoms billionaire who draws his support from the rural poor.

 

PAD spokesman Panthep Puapongpan said a driver and bodyguard were also in Mr Sondhi's car. All three were wounded, the driver seriously.

 

He said the attack was carried out by two gunmen, who drove into the petrol station, shot out the tyres of Mr Sondhi's car and then riddled the vehicle with bullets.

 

Mr Sondhi founded the PAD in 2005 after falling out with Mr Thaksin, who used to be a business associate.

 

A state of emergency is in effect in Bangkok after violent anti-government protests this week in which two people were killed.

 

The protests ended on Tuesday when the "red shirts" who had been occupying the grounds of Government House since March 26 surrendered to the hundreds of troops surrounding the building, the main office of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

 

Mr Abhisit extended the three-day Thai new year holiday until the end of the week to help the authorities restore law and order and repair infrastructure damaged in the protests, especially at key road junctions.

 

However, financial markets reopened on Thursday and both the stock exchange and baht ended little changed from before the holiday.

 

[Gaybutton]

The following appears in THE NATION:

_____

 

Sondhi is in Serious Condition : Doctor

 

Published on April 17, 2009

 

Sondhi Limthongkul is in serious condition after being shot as a bullet hit his left skull. The bullet is still in his skull, causing bleeding inside his brain, Vajira Hospital Director Dr Chaiwun Charoenchoktavee said Friday.

 

Doctors are conducting an urgent operation on Sondhi and the operation is expected to finish around noon.

 

Sondhi, a core leader of yellow shirts, known also as People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), who seized Bankok airports late last year, has no wounds on his body.

 

His driver, Vayupak Mussi, was also seriously wounded from the attack. Doctors said later that he survived and was now in stable condition.

 

Meanwhile PAD's spokesman Parnthep Pualpongpan said at least two attackers riding on a pickup blocked Sondhi's vehicle who was on Samsen Road, heading to Manager newspaper office in Banglampoo area early Friday morning.

 

The attackers then shot four tyres of Sondhi's vehicle before stepping out of their car and sprayed more bullets on the car. The attack lasted about five minutes and the attackers went back to their pickup which sped away along Tevet Road.

 

Police who rushed to the scene found Sondhi's car riddled with bullets and they could collect more than cartridges of AK-16 and rifles from the scene.

 

Parnthep said Sondhi was informed of reports that he could possible a target of attack, but he simply ignored the warnings.

 

Meanwhile Chamnong Paokorn, 53, a bus driver, said that he was driving his bus past Iamworanut Temple when he saw a blue pickup truck which had no license plate blocked Sondhi's vehicle.

 

Then two men on the back of the pickup then opened fires on the vehicle. Then another vehicle sped to the scene and exchanged fires with the attackers who later escaped the scene.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

I wonder if those who believed the red shirts are not violent still believe that.

[Guest Hedda]

I wonder if those who believed the red shirts are not violent still believe that.

 

And I wonder what crystal ball you have that enables you to blame the red shirts for the attack on Sondhi. If there's one man in Thailand who has made more enemies than Thaksin among the police, the army, politicians of all stripes and the business community, it's Sondhi.

 

Your impulsiveness to rush to judgment and blame the red shirts for the attack says more about you than the red shirts.

[Guest fountainhall]

If there's one man in Thailand who has made more enemies than Thaksin among the police, the army, politicians of all stripes and the business community, it's Sondhi

 

I agree with Hedda. I had some business dealings with Sondhi in the early 1990's. Even then, he had a bodyguard supplied by either the police or the army (can't recall which).

[Gaybutton]

And I wonder what crystal ball you have

No crystal ball, but I can't help taking note of the timing of it. Are the Red Shirts responsible? We have no way of knowing that yet, but if The Nation and the Bangkok Post publishes that they are, I'm not going to discount it just because it was they who published it.

[Gaybutton]

For photos, see: http://www.pattayadailynews.com/shownews.p...NEWS=0000008940

 

[Guest Soi10Tom]

Well, one thing is for sure. The shooters were not the US Navy's SEALs. ONE HUNDRED shots and ONE hit. They had to be the worst shots in the history of the world, or???????

[Gaybutton]

Well, one thing is for sure. The shooters were not the US Navy's SEALs. ONE HUNDRED shots and ONE hit. They had to be the worst shots in the history of the world, or???????

Well, finally something with which we agree. How about that? And I thought it would never happen . . .

[Guest fountainhall]

ONE HUNDRED shots and ONE hit

 

Sondhi has had the latest bullet-proof/bomb protection vehicles for years. I don't think the 'hit' rate' is at all surprising.

[Bob]

Sondhi has had the latest bullet-proof/bomb protection vehicles for years. I don't think the 'hit' rate' is at all surprising.

 

 

If so, he ought to sue for breach of warranty! In one photo, it looked to me that there were 30 holes through and through in the friggin' windshield alone.

 

I think he was extremely fortunate.

[Guest Oogleman]

I think he was extremely fortunate.

 

he wears a lucky amulet of course - and Thaksins spell caster wasn`t an original.

 

[Gaybutton]

This is a photo of Sondhi's car after the assassination attempt. The photo comes from THE NATION, so there is, according to some, every possibility that it isn't really Sondhi's car because you can't rely on anything The Nation or the Bangkok Post publishes . . .

 

[Guest fountainhall]

If so, he ought to sue for breach of warranty! In one photo, it looked to me that there were 30 holes through and through in the friggin' windshield alone

 

I know nothing about bullet-proof cars (never seen the need for one ). But to my thinking, a couple of bulllets from an AK47 at fairly close range would surely have shatttered the windscreen of any car I have been able to afford. And if 80+ bullets pumped into a normal car did not manage to kill all inside, then the shooters must be nearly blind.

 

That windshield certainly had some pretty tough strengthening to minimise the impact of bullets from a heavy duty weapon. Given that the main target came out of the car with only two wounds that were, according to the doctor, relatively easily patched up, it certainly was no normal car.

[Guest lvdkeyes]

Your impulsiveness to rush to judgment and blame the red shirts for the attack says more about you than the red shirts.

I will bet anything it wasn't the yellow shirts who shot him.