Gunmen Attack Thai Protest Leader

Supporters say attack that wounded 'yellow shirt' leaders was politically motivated
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 17, 2009 1:48 AM CDT
Gunmen Attack Thai Protest Leader
Sondhi Limthongkul, one of leaders of the People's Alliance for Democracy, arrives at the metropolitan police headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, July 24, 2008.   (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

The founder of Thailand's "yellow shirt" protest movement that shut down Bangkok airports last year was shot and wounded today in an attack that his supporters called politically motivated. Police say at least two men in a pickup truck ambushed Sondhi Limthongkul's car as he was being driven to work, first aiming to shoot out the tires and then spraying the vehicle with bullets.

Sondhi was shot in the shoulder and his driver was also wounded, a police spokesman said. Sondhi's People's Alliance for Democracy—which staged protests most of last year to demand that allies of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra resign from government—were not behind the latest round of protests in Thailand, which involved their rivals, the red-shirted supporters of Thaksin. Bangkok remains under emergency rule. (More Sondhi Limthongkul stories.)

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