Thai police hold 2nd foreigner in bombing probe
Print Edition
A FOREIGN man described as a “main suspect” in the deadly Bangkok bombing was arrested yesterday, with Thai police calling him an important figure in the network that staged the attack.
The man detained near the border with Cambodia is the second foreigner held over the August 17 blast at a religious shrine in central Bangkok which killed 20 people, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists.
Police also said arrest warrants had been issued for three fresh suspects still at large, two of whom with names that appear foreign.
Prime minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha said the unidentified foreigner was picked up at Sa Kaeo on the Thai side of the Cambodian border.
Asked whether he is thought to be the person who planted the bomb at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok’s busy Chidlom shopping district, he replied: “We are interrogating. He is a main suspect and a foreigner.”
National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said investigators believe the suspect is “an important person in the network” behind the bombing, Thailand’s worst single mass-casualty attack.
The man speaks English, Prawut said, adding that he appeared “similar” to a prime suspect captured on security camera footage leaving a bag at the scene moments before the blast.
Fresh arrest warrants have been issued for three new suspects for possessing bomb-making materials, Prawut added, holding up an iPad with sketches of the men.
One was unnamed but the other two were identified as Ahmet Bozaglan and Ali Jolan, although Prawut did not give their nationalities.
The motive for the attack remains a mystery.
As speculation has grown, a connection with Turkey has repeatedly been mentioned in local media, although authorities have so far been loath to single out any country as responsible for the attack on a shrine that is especially popular with ethnic Chinese visitors to the Thai capital.
The hunt for the perpetrators of the bomb blast has been characterized by confusing and at times contradictory statements from police and government officials.
But the tempo of the investigation has increased since the weekend when the first arrest was made.
A foreigner was detained on Saturday at a flat in a Bangkok suburb, allegedly in possession of bomb-making paraphernalia and dozens of fake Turkish passports.
He is in military custody but has not been publicly identified.
Police had previously speculated that the attack was in retaliation for a crackdown on a major people-smuggling network.
But analysts say crime alone was unlikely to be the motivating factor behind a bomb that brought such carnage.
A 26-year-old Thai Muslim woman called Wanna Suansan was named on Monday on another arrest warrant.
Police say she rented a separate flat in the city suburbs where bomb-making equipment was also found.
Thai authorities confirmed yesterday that Wanna is overseas but refused to say in which country.
Late Monday AFP tracked down her number and a woman answering that name took the phone call, saying she was living in the Turkish city of Kayseri with her husband, whose nationality she did not state.
The number was for a Turkish mobile phone.
In her phone interview, Wanna denied involvement in the blast, saying she had not visited the flat where the bomb-making equipment was found for around a year.
Instead, she said, it had been rented to a friend of her husband.
Police have also searched her parents’ home in the southern province of Phang Nga.
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