DHAKA: Thailand’s military chief on Saturday shrugged off an opposition rally leader’s appeal to intervene in support of protester efforts to topple the government and install an unelected ‘people’s council’.

Weeks of boisterous demonstration have gripped Bangkok in the latest political turmoil for the putsch-prone nation, prompting premier Yingluck Shinawatra to call snap elections for February 2 to try and calm tensions.

But the vote has been rejected by demonstrators, who have vowed to keep up their fight to rid the country of the influence of Yingluck’s divisive brother Thaksin, a former Thai prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup.

Responding to calls by protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban to ‘stand by the people’, the country’s head of defence forces Thanasak Patimaprakorn said the ‘best way to solve the problem is through negotiation’, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 2053 HRS, DEC 14, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor