‘Foreigner belonging to a network’ bombed shrine
Thai police release image drawn from security footage
BANGKOK // The man responsible for the Bangkok shrine bombing that killed 20 people was a foreigner and part of a network, Thai police said yesterday.
The shrine, a popular tourist attraction, reopened yesterday morning with a ceremony led by chanting monks.
Meanwhile, police released a sketch of a young man who was seen on security footage walking into the packed Hindu shrine and leaving a backpack believed to contain the bomb.
A few hours later Bangkok’s southern criminal court issued an arrest warrant for a foreigner accused of premeditated mur- der, attempted murder and making a bomb.
Before the arrest warrant was made public, national police chief Gen Somyot Poompanmuang said a network had organised the attack, which was a first for the Thai capital. “We believe there must be people helping him – Thai people,” Gen Somyot said.
The attack occurred on Monday evening as worshippers and tourists crowded the Erawan shrine in Bangkok’s commercial centre.
The blast tore apart bodies and incinerated motorcycles.
At least 13 foreigners were killed, from China, Hong Kong, Britain, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. And 68 people remained in hospital yesterday, 12 of them in critical condition.
The security footage released to the public on Tuesday showed the suspect wearing a bright yellow T-shirt and dark shorts.
He casually placed the backpack under a bench and then slowly walked away, clutching a blue plastic bag while looking at what appeared to be a smartphone.
Police said he escaped on a motorcycle taxi, a common form of transport in Bangkok, and that the bomb exploded several minutes later. Police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said other security footage of the suspect was also used to create the sketch.
Police initially said a second explosion at a Bangkok pier on Tuesday might be linked, deepening residents’ fears for their safety.
But Gen Somyot said yesterday that the second attack – which caused no injuries – might also be a copycat, although police were keeping all options open.
Security experts had said they were baffled over who was responsible.
Thailand has experienced a political crisis for almost 10 years that has seen endless rounds of street violence, but never anything on the scale of Monday’s bomb. And foreigners are generally not targets in a country that prides itself on extending a warm welcome to outsiders. An insurgency by Muslims in Thailand’s south has killed 6,400, mostly civilians, but it is a highly localised conflict.
The arrest warrant immediately raised questions over which foreign groups had the motives and ability to carry out the attack.
Some Thai media outlets had cast suspicion on militants from China’s Uighur minority, a Muslim group that faces cultural and religious repression in their homeland. Chinese authorities have blamed Uighurs for a series of attacks inside China, most of which have been knife assaults.
Last month Thailand repatri- ated more than 100 Uighur refugees to China, and there was talk that Monday’s attack may have been an act of revenge.
The Erawan shrine is close to Bangkok’s Chinatown and Chinese tourists are among the most important for Thailand. Five of the confirmed deaths were from China, and two from Hong Kong. But Uighur groups are not known to have ever carried out an attack outside of China.
Various Islamic militant groups have carried out many attacks in other parts of South-East Asia, but they have not made Thailand a prime target.
The shrine’s surroundings had been largely restored and pools of congealed blood scrubbed away before it opened yesterday.
Twisted iron railings were the only real sign of the blast point, which police believe was caused by a bomb made from 3 kilograms of high explosives.
A devotee at the shrine had more reason than most to give thanks. Tommy Goh, 56, a Thai-Malaysian from Penang, said a late taxi from his hotel spared him from being at the shrine at the time of the blast. “We were meant to be here around 6.50 to 7pm but the taxi didn’t arrive from the hotel, so we went somewhere else,” he said. “Ten minutes later and it could have been so different.”
Police say the bomber escaped on a motorcycle taxi