Date – March 10, 2010 

The Democrat Party is preparing for the rally of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) in Bangkok and surrounding areas, while Deputy Prime Minister overseeing national security Suthep Thaugsuban says there are planned bombings and similar attacks at 30-40 locations.

The meeting of Democrat Party MPs yesterday was reported to be intense, focusing mostly on the expected rally of the UDD on March 12-14, while Mr. Suthep told the meeting participants that the security agencies anticipate that as many as 150,000 red-shirt supporters will join the rally in Bangkok.

However, he said the actual figure may even be higher than the estimate as recruitment of protestors in some areas is becoming obvious, and funding for such activity has been proposed for certain MPs.

He also claims there are planned bombings at two locations and lesser attacks at 30-40 other locations.

At the end of the meeting, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva told the MPs in his three-minute long speech that they will face one of the toughest battles. He asked the MPs to report movement in their constituencies to the war room in order to come up with timely responses.

He said some MPs have reported attempts to hoard bottles that may be used to create Molotov cocktail and the authorities examining the case also confirmed that there were large purchases of such bottles in the reported areas.