BANGKOK (Reuters) - The founder of Thailand's "yellow shirt" protest movement, which was behind the week-long occupation of Bangkok's main airports last year, was shot and wounded on Friday, but a doctor said his life was not in danger.
A policeman looks at the car in which Sondhi Limthongkul, one of the founders of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD), was attacked in Bangkok April 17, 2009. (REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom)
The assassination attempt came hours before the government extended a state of emergency in the capital and the cabinet met to discuss the past week's political violence as well as the budget and a stimulus package for the beleaguered economy.
Sondhi Limthongkul received a bloody head wound but survived after gunmen riddled his car with bullets at a petrol station before dawn.
"He is safe now and able to talk," said Dr. Chaiwan Chareonchoktawee, director of Vajira hospital, after Sondhi had an operation to remove bullet fragments and bits of skull bone.
Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Atchana Waiquamdee told reporters the political turmoil could affect government efforts to revive the economy and delay economic recovery.
"Political instability is affecting not only confidence, but also government policies," she said on Friday.
At the cabinet meeting on Friday, the government agreed to increase its borrowing in order to offset a revenue shortfall and get more funds to stimulate the economy.
The stock market rose 1.5 percent at one stage but then fell back and was down 0.1 percent at midsession. Some analysts expected selling from foreign investors later due to growing worries about the political situation.
YELLOWS AND REDS
Sondhi's yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) is a motley collection of royalists, academics, ex-military people and Bangkok's middle classes united in their loathing of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, deposed in a 2006 military coup.
Sondhi founded the PAD in 2005 after falling out with Thaksin, who used to be a business associate.
The "yellow shirts" have not been part of the latest political violence, which has involved Thaksin's red-shirted supporters, but protests severely undermined pro-Thaksin governments that ruled following a return to democracy in 2008.
On an alliance-run radio station, another PAD leader, Pipop Thongchai, quickly pointed the finger at "Thaksin's lieutenants who could not accept defeat after their setbacks" over the past week, when troops forced them to end a siege of Government House.
"I would like to point out that this involves only Thaksin and not the majority of his ordinary red shirts who should be separated from him in this incident," Pipop said.
Bangkok Metropolitan Police Commissioner Vorapong Chiewpreecha told television that 84 spent cartridges were found at the scene of Sondhi's assassination attempt.
"We also found an M-79 grenade that was fired but missed Mr. Sondhi's vehicle. It hit an empty public bus parked nearby but it did not go off," he said.
A bodyguard had minor injuries, but Sondhi's driver was seriously wounded and undergoing surgery at another hospital.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said on Thursday the turmoil meant big tax shortfalls as businesses delayed investment and the tourist sector faced more losses. He noted forecasts that the economy could shrink 5 percent this year.
After a 6.1 percent contraction in the economy in the final quarter of 2008, Thailand is almost certainly experiencing its first recession since the Asian economic crisis 11 years ago.
(Additional reporting by Vithoon Amorn, Viparat Jantraprap, Arada Therdthammakun, Kittipong Soonprasert and Orathai Sriring)
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