Thailand police say Bangkok bomb suspect fled to Turkey

Deputy police chief Chakthip Chaijinda was in Kuala Lumpur meeting Malaysian police to discuss information involving the three suspects, but initially they were linked only with possible trafficking of Urghur people, Pol Gen Somyot told a press conference.

The other suspect, named by Thai police as Adem Karadag, was allegedly discovered in a flat on the outskirts of Bangkok in possession of bomb making equipment and dozens of fake Turkish passports. At least five Chinese tourists were killed and many others hospitalised.

Thailand’s national police chief said on Tuesday that authorities are now certain that last month’s deadly bombing at a Bangkok shrine was related to the trafficking of Uighur Muslims from China to Turkey.

On Tuesday, Somyot also elaborated on a possible motive, suggesting that in addition to being angry that the human trafficking network was broken up, the perpetrators were upset at the repatriation.

Royal Thai Police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang today walked back statements he made yesterday attributing the attack to anger over Thailand’s deportation of 109 Uighurs under pressure from Beijing. One Thai newspaper called the claim “unreasonable” because, if it were true, there would have been a more intensive crackdown on traffickers after the bombing.

Bilgiç underlined Tuesday that Turkey could only investigate a suspect after receiving information from the country concerned.

The Thai police previously said that one of the suspects had a Chinese passport showing that he was from Xinjiang, the Uighur homeland in far western China.

Hidden by multiple layers of deniability, official obfuscation, and patchy police work, the local masterminds likely acted in coordination with foreign criminals with prior links to wayward security officials to execute the politically sensitive attack, the same sources said.

The current whereabouts of Abudusataer Abudureheman are unknown; Thai officials have said he traveled to Turkey, which Turkish officials have denied. However, Mr Prawut said on Monday that the suspect had left Dhaka for New Delhi before heading for Abu Dhabi and then to Turkey.

Winthai Suvaree, spokesman for the National Council for Peace and Order, also said on Wednesday that there was no confirmation that the three suspects arrested in Malaysia were connected to any bombing in Bangkok in August. “From Delhi, he continued his travel to Abu Dhabi, and from Abu Dhabi he traveled on August”.

Many Uighurs say they are discriminated against by the Chinese government.

Thai police say the man who may have actually planted the bomb may have fled across Thailand’s southern border to Malaysia, but Khalid refused to speculate on that.

On 9 July, Turkish nationalists stormed the Thai Consulate in Istanbul in protest to the deportation of the Uighur refugees, who had fled China when they were captured in March 2014.