The two-page document, stamped “Confidential” in red and circulated on the Internet yesterday, was allegedly issued by the 38th Military Circle.

The first page mentions the recent edict by the National Council for Peace and Order to crack down on “influential people” across the country and called on the recipients of the document to make lists of such people.

The document’s second page specifies targeted groups such as politicians, academics and hardcore protest leaders and gives instructions on how to deal with them, including the use of violence – even killing people.

General Piyaphong Klinphan, a spokesperson of the NCPO, said that only the first page of the document was authentic and the second page was false.

He said the authentic part of the document was not confidential and if they were from the same document, both pages should have been stamped as confidential.

NCPO ‘never used violence’

The spokesman said the NCPO had never used any violence.

He said from the initial assessment of the document, it appeared to have been doctored by people who wanted to cause confusion and conflict. He asked people to be thoughtful in reading it and sharing it.

Lt-General Somsak Nillabanjerdkul, chief of the 3rd Army, said the first page of the document was issued by the 38th Military Circle. It was an ordinary order document, he said.

Somsak said the second page did not come from the Military Circle. People with bad intentions might have created it, he added.

He said he had ordered an investigation to try and find the culprits.

In addition, he ordered officers of all agencies to be more cautious in looking after official documents, reasoning that there are people who want to doctor documents to cause confusion among the public.

Maj-General Chainarong Kaewkla, head of the 38th Military Circle, met with soldiers in the circle and called on them to investigate how the document had been leaked, a source at the 38th Military Circle said.

The source said it was the policy of Army commander-in-chief General Theerachai Nakvanich to be strict about the issue.

An initial investigation suggested that the first page of the document was a transcript of a radio message from the 38th Military Circle to its sub-units, the source said, while the second page was not issued by the circle and it could be a fake.