BANGKOK: Around 1,000 people rallied in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on Sunday to protest the construction of homes for officials on forested land flanking a revered mountain, in one of the largest shows of dissent under junta rule.

Public frustration has been mounting over the project since aerial images of several dozen officials’ homes — carved into the green foothills of Chiang Mai’s Doi Suthep mountain — started circulating on social media earlier this year.

Protesters say the mountain, which looms over Chiang Mai and hosts a hugely popular temple believed to hold a relic of the Buddha, is a sacred site and conservation area.

But officials have defended the state housing project for judges and other court staff, saying it was carried out legally on a patch of government-owned land adjacent to the national park that covers the rest of the mountain.

The controversy has touched on long-running frustration over special treatment granted to Thai officials and elites — often at the expense of the public and the environment.

The march went ahead in defiance of a ban on political gatherings and protests imposed by the junta that seized power in 2014.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2018