Thai army chief declares martial law nationwide to restore peace and order

BANGKOK, May 20 (TNA) - Thai Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has invoked martial law throughout the country as of early Tuesday morning and set up a new body to maintain peace and order, while also ordering top officials of all government agencies and governors of all provinces to attend a meeting at the Thai Army Club in Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon, at 2pm. General Prayuth declared the martial law at 3am, reasoning that it is aimed at bringing the situation under control, as both anti and pro-government demonstrators plan to escalate their mass rallies in the coming days with fears of their violent confrontation and riot. Domestic political strife since last October, with continual violent attacks by unidentified armed groups, has led to 28 fatalities and hundreds of injuries so far. General Prayuth, in his capacity as Chief of the newly-set up Peace-Keeping Command Centre (PKCC), later formally named the Peace and Order Maintaining Command (POMC), in lieu of the caretaker government-run Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order (CAPO), told both anti and pro-government groups to stop their movements and to cooperate on a process to address domestic political problems and to restore peace and order in the nation. The army cum the POMC chief said both anti and pro-government demonstrators can continue their peaceful assemblies at their venues. According to the army and the POMC chief, the public should not panic, but carrying on their normal ways of life. No timeframe has been set for the imposition of the martial law and soldiers have been deployed at focal places and routes. Meanwhile, Deputy National Police Chief Police General Worapong Chewpreecha announced the withdrawal of all police forces earlier deployed to maintain order in Bangkok's areas to their original staions, including riot police deployed at the CMPO to hand over the main peace keeping mission in the capital to soldiers. (TNA)