A senior Thai official said Friday there are reasons the Thai cabinet decided to maintaining a state of emergency in Bangkok and surrounding districts.

Deputy PM's secretary-general Panitan Wattanayagorn said after a special cabinet meeting that there are three factors to explain the cabinet's decision to maintain the state of emergency and an appropriated time to lift the state of emergency has also been discussed at the meeting, the website by Thai-language newspaper Matichon reported.

Panitan said that it was discovered that inciting public protests had existed through many channels.

Secondly, police had not yet arrested and detained some leaders of the anti-government protesters, said Panitan, who is also acting government spokesman.

Lastly, the gun attack on Sondhi Limthongkul, a core leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) - one of Thailand's active political groups -- on early Friday morning was another factor, which affected the cabinet's decision.

Sondhi was attacked while riding on his way to his newspaper and television office in Banglampoo in Bangkok at about 5:00 AM local time when a group of armed men shot at his vehicle from a pickup.

From Sunday afternoon, the Thai government has declared a state of emergency in the capital Bangkok and some districts of five nearby provinces, citing the escalating violence due to scattered anti-government rallies.

Prior to the state of emergency's declaration, on Saturday, April 11, the anti-government protesters stormed into the venue of the then-ongoing ASEAN summit and related summits at the beach resort Pattaya, resulting in the cancellation of all of the summits.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2009)