Protests and blockades in the provinces Monday and a grenade attack against a politician deepened fears of a civil conflict in Thailand after the prime minister rejected demands by anti-government protesters. Protesters fortified a sprawling encampment in Bangkok's main shopping district and urged supporters in northern provinces to block convoys of police and soldiers from reinforcing the capital, adding to a growing sense of lawlessness. Hopes for an end to a seven-week standoff that has paralyzed Bangkok and killed 26 people were dashed on the weekend when Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva rejected a proposal by the protesters for an election in three months. Bargain hunters bought Thai stocks, pushing the local index up 1.3 percent, in line with most Asian markets. But Chris Wood, an analyst at brokerage CLSA, said he had cut his allocation of Thai stocks to zero. “All evidence still points to a potentially inflammatory stalemate in Thai politics,” he said. Underlining those concerns, a grenade was hurled late Sunday at a police post near the home of Banharn Silapa-Archa, chief adviser to the Chart Thai Pattana Party, wounding at least 11 people, a medical centre said. Banharn is a former prime minister who has switched allegiance regularly throughout his career. Protesters have called for his party and other governing coalition partners to abandon Abhisit's Democrat Party to force fresh elections. The mostly rural and urban poor “red shirts”, responded to their leaders' call for resistance with a half-dozen blockades in their north and northeast strongholds, another headache for the Oxford-educated Abhisit, who faces pressure from many urban middle class Thais to take a hard line against the protesters.
