Thailand govt. set to lift state of emergency

Thai National Security Council chief Paradorn Pattanathabutr has hinted that a state of emergency could be lifted in Bangkok and its adjacent areas.

On Tuesday, Pattanathabutr said there was a “very high chance” the state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding areas would be lifted soon.

“Business organizations have asked that it be lifted and the overall situation is easing,” Paradorn told reporters in the Thai capital.

The government imposed the 60-day emergency state in Bangkok on January 21 in a bid to contain the unrest and incidents of violence.

The remarks come days after thousands of Thai anti-government demonstrators retreated from major protest sites in downtown Bangkok to the calm of a city-center park. The government officials hoped that relocating the rallies to Lumpini Park in the center of Bangkok would ease pressure on businesses and government institutions.

The unrest has forced many government offices to stop working.

Thailand has been the scene of mass street protests since November 2013 with the demonstrators calling on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down, so that an unelected “people’s council” could enact reforms.

Opponents see her as a proxy for her elder brother Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister toppled in a military coup in 2006.

The ex-premier has been in self-exile since 2008 to avoid a two-year prison sentence.

So far, nearly two dozen people have been killed and hundreds more injured in attacks and assaults.