BANGKOK: Thai authorities have confiscated some 8,000 red bowls bearing a message from an ousted ex-premier, police said on Sunday, in the junta’s latest attempt to block the resurgence of the political party it toppled.

The raids followed the arrest last week of a woman seen posing with one of the bowls in photos on social media. She has been charged with sedition, a move slammed by a rights group as absurd.

The plastic scoops, used for pouring water in Buddhist ceremonies during Thailand’s upcoming new year, bear a note signed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose political bloc has spent the past decade vying for power with a military-backed elite.

Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup and now lives in exile, while the government run by his sister Yingluck was toppled by the current junta in 2014.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2016