5 Students Arrested For Hunger Games Salute During Anti-coup Protest

The students brandished the gesture, an unofficial symbol of resistance against the military regime,  as prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha delivered a speech on his first official visit to the north-eastern province of Khon Kaen on Wednesday.
Five Thai university students have been arrested for staging a silent protest against the country's military rulers where they flashed a three-finger salute, a gesture adopted from the Hunger Games films.


Officials removed the students from the venue after they whipped off sweaters to reveal T-shirts displaying Thai letters spelling out "No Coup" and flashed the three-fingered salute, according to public broadcaster Thai PBS.

"We handed over the five students to army officials," Khon Kaen provincial police commander Jitjaroon Srivanit said.

A military official, who did not want to be named, confirmed that the students had been detained. All political protests are currently banned under martial law imposed by the junta which seized power in May.




"They have been taken to a military camp," he said.Human rights lawyer Sasinan Thamnithinan said that in return for their release the students had been asked to sign undertakings not to engage in political activity - on threat of expulsion from the law faculty at Khon Kaen University, where they study.
It was not immediately clear if the five were later released.













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