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Police clash with Dhammakaya monksMonks and police faced off on Monday at Wat Phra Dhammakaya monastery where security forces are trying to arrest an influential former abbot on money-laundering charges.

Police said they would try to avoid violence while threatening arrest for followers of the sprawling temple who have defied orders to leave and instead flocked there, hampering the search for 72-year-old Phra Dhammachayo.

With tension rising four days after the military government ordered emergency powers to be used in the search, monks and police pushed and shoved at one of the temple gates.