Thousands of Thai protesters demonstrated in Bangkok on Thursday in defiance of a ban imposed to end three months of anti-government action that has targeted King Maha Vajiralongkorn as well as Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former junta leader.
“Release our friends,” protesters chanted at police, referring to the arrest of some 40 protesters this week. They held up the three-finger salute adopted as a symbol of opposition after Prayuth’s 2014 coup.
Despite police appeals over a loudspeaker to disperse, the group spilled across the Ratchaprasong Intersection in one of Bangkok’s busiest commercial districts.
