Police yesterday confirmed all 82 people arrested for breaking into the state-owned television station NBT on Tuesday were members of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD). They said they were not members of a third party as the PAD had tried to claim.
Deputy national police chief Jongrak Juthanont said the raid on NBT was not a set-up by station staff.
The raid was the work of 82 people who called themselves ''Srivijaya warriors'' who worked as guards for the PAD.
The www.manager.co.th website of core PAD leader Sondhi Limthongkul also called the 82 people ''Srivijaya warriors''.
The raid was well-planned and tasks were delegated to each person, Pol Gen Jongrak said.
The deputy police chief yesterday led a group of senior police officers on an inspection of the television station on Vibhavadi Rangsit road.
They found that the first, second and sixth floors of the building had been involved in the raid.
On the first floor, many footprints were found in front of the reception to Princess Ubolratana's room which was next to the station's studio.
The door to the princess' room was damaged. The two other floors were partly damaged.
Pol Gen Jongrak said four more charges have been pressed against the suspects. The new charges were using communication radios without permission, unlawful possession of firearms, carrying knives without permission and possessing narcotics. Seized items included one handgun, one shotgun, several knives and krathom leaves which have a stimulant effect.
The Criminal Court yesterday denied them bail, saying they had committed violent crimes.
Suriyong Hunthasan, the acting director of NBT, said the hard-disc system of the station's closed-circuit camera had been destroyed in the raid. The station would not reopen until repairs were completed. However, NBT could broadcast its programmes via other avenues. Meanwhile, Panlop Pinmanee, the former deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), denied he was behind the PAD rally or its siege of Government House.
He admitted he had close ties with Chamlong Srimuang, a PAD leader, but said they had different methods of pursuing their causes.
Maj-Gen Chamlong embraced ''ahimsa'', or the principle of non-violence, in fighting the government while he had less patience than the PAD core leader, Gen Panlop said.
If he had engineered the PAD moves, the demonstrations would not have lasted three months, he said.
He never attended the PAD rallies and the protest leaders had never asked him for advice.
Gen Panlop dismissed any link with the raids on NBT. The PAD protesters also occupied other government agencies before retreating later.
Earlier, deputy government spokesman Natthawut Saikua suggested the raids were connected to former military officers critical of the government.
It was alleged Sqn Ldr Prasong Soonsiri, a former charter writer, and Gen Panlop might be behind the PAD movement. Gen Panlop warned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej not to impose the emergency decree in order to try to break up the PAD protests. That could easily lead to the situation getting completely out of hand.
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