Ever since sham elections in March, activists have been singled out in a series of brutal attacks as the military tightens its grip on power

The blows came hard and heavy on Sirawith Seritiwat’s head. The four men, dressed in motorcycle helmets, black gloves and balaclavas, brought their metal truncheons down again and again down onto the young activist’s face, shattering his nose and eye socket as blood poured from a wound in his head.

“I have never felt so much excruciating pain, I thought they would kill me,” said Sirawith, popularly known as “Ja New”. But as cries of “the police are coming” reverberated across the busy suburban Bangkok junction, the attackers jumped on motorcycles and drove off, disappearing as quickly as they had come.

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This brutal assault on Sirawith, a prominent face of the anti-military, pro-democracy opposition movement in Thailand, on 27 June, was not the first. Just three weeks earlier, a group of six men, again dressed in helmets and gloves to conceal their identity, lay in wait for him outside his home and beat him to the ground with wooden rods. Both times he ended up in hospital, the second time unconscious and in intensive care.

It is the latest in a series of violent attacks on Thailand’s opposition activists in recent weeks, an unprecedented escalation in brutality that has left campaigners and human rights groups reeling.

“Without a doubt that the military are responsible for ordering the attacks,” said Sirawith, brandishing a bloodstained briefcase he had used in a futile attempt to fight off his attackers. With his head and broken nose still bandaged and the vision in his bloodshot right eye unlikely to recover for at least five months, he spoke of PTSD symptoms, experiencing flashbacks of his attacks and extreme anxiety.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amnesty International campaigners hold up images of Sirawith ‘Ja New’ Seritiwat, who has beaten by unknown attackers twice in recent months. The sign reads “We are all Ja New”. Photograph: Candida Ng/AFP/Getty Images

“They want to send out a strong warning to activists who might be planning protests, to show us that even after the election they still hold all the control. They create an atmosphere of fear by attacking us, even in broad daylight in the streets. And it has worked – I am scared, everyone is scared.” The government offered Sirawith police protection but only on the condition he give up his activism.

In March this year, Thailand held its first election in eight years, following five years of rule by a military junta which took power in a coup in 2014. But while the election was touted as the country’s supposed “return to democracy”, the military had skewed the system and constitution so heavily in their favour that they were returned to power through a proxy political party. Former junta leader Prayut Chan-ocha was installed as prime minister heading up a cabinet made up of almost entirely the same army figures who were in charge previously. All of the activists violently targeted in recent months were attacked just prior to them staging protests against the deep flaws in the election process.

Opposition activists in Thailand, peacefully fighting for democracy and an end to the military’s grip on power, are no strangers to intimidation. Sirawith is currently facing 13 criminal charges for his activism.

But the post-election violence has shaken even those who have been arrested, charged, smeared, followed and sent to “attitude adjustment” camps countless times. Many now say that in recent weeks the “climate of fear” has escalated to the same levels felt just after the military began rounding up and jailing critics and activists in 2014. Some say it is even worse.

“Now, rather than being scared about legal charges, we all live in fear of violent physical attack,” said Weerachai Fendi, another activist. “It feels as unpredictable and dangerous as it did right after the coup, maybe even more dangerous.”

The military have denied all roles in the attacks and Prayut said he had instructed police to investigate. “I am not his enemy,” he said of Sirawith.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Thai pro-democracy demonstrators at a rally in Bangkok. Photograph: Narong Sangnak/EPA

While the junta is the common enemy linking the attacks, the military’s role is hard to prove, especially in the absence of any independent investigation. So far only one person has been questioned, detained or charged in connection to the violence. While several activists said they had sources who had confirmed the orders had come from the military, the Guardian could not verify the claims.

“The Thai government are talking about opening a new chapter of democracy after the election but these attacks show that in fact, when it comes to human rights, Thailand is going backwards and things are getting worse,” said Piyanut Kotsan, director of Amnesty International Thailand. “It seems like the space for people to exercise their political rights is shrinking fast.”

Last week Amnesty wrote an open letter to Thailand’s defence minister and the police commissioner demanding an independent investigation into the attacks. Piyanut said they would continue to pressure the government for justice.

Speaking to the Guardian, Pol Major General Nithinand Petchborom, deputy metropolitan police commissioner, who is heading up the investigation into Sirawith’s attack said they were “working hard on this case and we will not abandon it until we can bring the culprits to justice.”

Acknowledging that Sirawith’s political activism was the likely motive of the attacks, Nithinand said the police were tracking the possible escape routes of the attackers using CCTV and had interviewed 15 eyewitnesses. However, he emphasised that the culprits had been “very well prepared” and the helmets covering their faces and the absence of number plates on the motorbikes made it a “difficult case”.

Anurak Jeantawanich is another prominent activist who has been violently attacked twice since March. The first time, he was returning late at night from a protest against the military when a man in a motorcycle helmet forced his way into his house and beat him with a thick wooden pole before escaping.

The second attack, at 7am on 25 May, just hours before Anurak was due to stage another anti-military protest outside parliament, was even more brutal. Six men on three motorbikes crashed into Anurak’s motorbike as he was driving with his wife 100 metres from his home, knocking them both to the ground and beating him with metal batons.

“This was a professional attack and it is the work of the junta,” he added. “They wanted to hurt me badly as a warning or incapacitate me to stop me protesting. They have hit me with so many legal charges, detained me, come to my house so many times but I have never stopped fighting. So now they use violence.”

Since his first attack in March, four police officers were appointed to protect him when he leaves his house. But his every move is being reported. Halfway through his interview with the Guardian it becomes evident that his police guard have set up a video camera on the neighbouring table, without asking permission, and are recording everything while the four officers sit metres away.

Anurak says that on the morning of his second attack in May, his police guard did not turn up.

“What can I do? I have no choice,” Anurak said. “I either give up my freedom or I risk being beaten in the street.” The impact on his mental health had been huge, he said. He barely leaves the house and can’t sleep most nights, getting up regularly to check the locks and the windows.

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Another veteran activist, Ekkachai Hongkangwan, has been physically attacked seven times since January 2018 and his car set alight twice.

The spate of beatings have coincided with an equally violent campaign of intimidation against anti-military activists who live in exile in Laos, where they fled after the coup. Several dissidents have gone missing or been murdered, with two turning up in the Mekong river their bodies stuffed with concrete in December.

The leader of the pro-democracy We Vote movement, Nuttaa Mahattana, said the campaigners were not cowed by the violence but they had decided not to stage any public gatherings or protests for a while.

“People are afraid to join us and so makes it impossible for us to form any big movement against the military,” said Nuttaa. “These attacks have become part of the state mechanism to silence the people, and sadly they are working. ”

Ryn Jirenuwat contributed reporting