 Thirayuth also played a role in exposing the Internal Security Operations Command's role in a massacre of villagers at Ban Na Sai village in the northeast.After the student massacre at Thammasat University on 6 October 1976, Thirayuth, as well as many other students and intellectuals fled from the cities to take refuge with the Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in its jungle strongholds.Thirayuth increasingly became critical of the king, noting in a broadcast on 1 April 1977 that the monarchy was "obsolete and deteriorating", and that "I think that if our people were to destroy it, there would be no adverse effects".