PATHUM THANI - Thousands of followers broke through official barricades to enter Wat Phra Dhammakaya and returned with monks to form a human shield, just before a deadline for them to leave the temple.
The followers breached the barricades at Gates 5 and 6 on Bang Khan-Nong Sua Road in Khlong Luang district at about 1pm. Temple officials let the laymen enter the vast compound through a special entrance and the people boarded vehicles to reach inner areas.
During the breach, a follower threw a newsagency camera worth about 300,000 baht to the ground, breaking it.
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About ten minutes later the followers emerged with a lot of the temple's monks. Wearing face masks, they cut opened Gate 5 and formed a human shield confronting police.
Pol Lt Gen Charnthep Sesavej, commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 1, tried to calm the mob. Both sides pushed each other for about 20 minutes before stopping. Police from Saraburi province were deployed to replace police from Ayutthaya province adjacent to Pathum Thani.
Pol Lt Charnthep said police needed reinforcement to control the situation and prevent any ill-intended parties from triggering an incident.
He said officials had taken pictures of the people who broke through their barricades and would later take legal action against them.
The incident occurred two hours before the 3pm deadline of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) for people and monks who are not a resident of Wat Phra Dhammakaya to leave the temple to facilitate searches.
DSI director-general Paisit Wongmuang later issued a summons for 14 senior monks of the temple to report to him at the Region 1 Border Patrol Police Bureau in Khlong Luang district at 6pm. They include its former abbot Phra Dhammajayo.
The DSI said on its Facebook page that officials had found a pistol and a knife in the van of a temple adherent. (DSI's photo below)
Since Thursday, DSI and police have searched the 2,300-rai temple compound for Phra Dhammajayo, 72, who is wanted for forest encroachment, money laundering and receiving stolen assets in connection with his meditation centres in several provinces and the multi-billion-baht embezzlement at Klongchan Credit Union Co-operative.
VDO by DSI
