Rival shows of force

BANGKOK: Thai antiGovernment protesters and royalist supporters of King Maha Vajiralongkorn staged rival shows of force on either side of a Bangkok street yesterday, as political tension grows after three months of demonstrations.

Several hundred protesters at the Democracy Monument repeated their call for the departure of Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha, a former junta leader, and a new constitution. They gave their trademark threefinger salute.

Just a couple of dozen metres away, hundreds of royalists assembled with members of security forces — all of them clad in the royal yellow colour — hours before a royal motorcade was due to pass along the road.

Despite one brief fistfight, the two sides largely kept apart, but the standoff revived fears of trouble in a country that suffered a decade of street violence between supporters and opponents of the establishment before a 2014 coup. — Reuters