Battlefield Din Daeng and Thai protesters with ‘nothing to lose’ | Protests News

Bangkok, Thailand – Before revealing scars across his body, Gap* glances up at a group of police officers watching closely from across the street. It is only 7pm, but security forces in the area are already on high alert.

“The cops have shot me many times,” the 23-year-old, who prefers to use his nickname, told Al Jazeera from a small roadside restaurant in Din Daeng, the heart of Bangkok’s second largest slum community. These days the district — a highrise slum community dense with dilapidated buildings of government housing — appears more like a war zone. A few metres away from the table where Gap is sitting, dozens of cops in bulletproof vests are on patrol armed with shotguns loaded with rubber bullets, and handguns loaded with live ammunition.

Over Gap’s voice, the sound of explosions occasionally echoes in the distance. “Those are our brothers,” he said.

Gap…