Thailand's ousted Cabinet members meet first time after coup

BANGKOK, July 4 (TNA) - Thailand's ousted Cabinet members and those of the Pheu Thai Party, including ex-prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, met for the first time on Thursday at a cremation of a late science and technology minister at a temple in Bangkok, after the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has taken the national administrative power on May 22, 2014. Other key figures attending the cremation of late science and technology minister Peerapan Palusuk included ex-deputy prime minister Plodprasop Suraswadi, ex-deputy prime minister and commerce minister Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisarn, ex-labour minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubumrung and ex-transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt. Several leading red-shirt activists, aligned with the Pheu Thai Party, and members of the Democrat Party also attended the ceremony. Yingluck declined to answer political questions raised by journalists at the cremation of the late Pheu Thai minister, who passed away from stroke on April 30. Several ousted Cabinet members and key Pheu Thai figures then met again on Thursday evening as invited guests, including ex-deputy prime minister and finance minister Kittirat Na Ranong and ex-education minister Chaturon Chaisang, at a reception held at the Conrad Hotel in Bangkok to celebrate the 238th Independence Anniversary of the United States. Meanwhile, the NCPO issued an order on Thursday evening, transferring several high ranking government officials, including Police General Pongsapat Pongcharoen, who was ousted from secretary-general of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) to an inactive post at the Royal Thai Police. Police General Pongsapat is a former deputy national police chief and has a close connection with the Pheu Thai Party. (TNA)