Red Shirts suspected in Thai attack
BANGKOK—Thailand’s junta leader said on Tuesday a suspect had been identified in the bombing of a packed Bangkok religious shrine, condemning the blast that killed at least 20 people as the “worst ever attack” on the kingdom. (See related story on Page A1)
The blast occurred on Monday in one of the Thai capital’s most popular tourism hubs, ripping through a crowd of worshippers at the Hindu shrine close to five-star hotels and upscale shopping malls.
Chinese, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Indonesian and Malaysian citizens were among the 20 people killed, police said.
More than 100 other people were injured as the blast left body parts strewn across crushed pavement, alongside shattered windows and incinerated motorcycles.
Junta chief Prayut Chan-ocha on Tuesday branded the bomb- ing the “worst ever attack” on Thailand, as he gave the first indications of who authorities believed were responsible.
“Today there is a suspect... we are looking for this guy,” Prayut told reporters, adding the man was seen on closed circuit television at the blast site.
He also said he believed Facebook messages apparently warning of an imminent danger to Bangkok ahead of the bomb came from an “antigovernment group” based in Thailand’s northeast—the heartland of the kingdom’s anticoup Red Shirt movement.
“We are looking for them now, some of them are in Isaan (northeastern Thailand),” Prayut said.
Bangkok has endured more than a decade of deadly political violence, with the junta ruling the nation since May last year after toppling the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
The Red Shirts are a grassroots network of rural and urban poor that are loyal to Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist politician who was a previous prime minister.
But no one claimed responsibility for Monday’s assault.
Security analysts said there was no obvious culprit and they doubted it was in the interests of the antijunta groups to carry out such an attack.
“Even if they are hell-bent on bringing down the government I just can’t see them targeting a Hindu or any other religious shrine,” Zachary Abuza, an independent expert on Thai security, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“That would really alienate many of their supporters.”
Muslim rebels from the country’s far south have also waged a separatist insurgency for more than a decade that has claimed thousands of lives, mostly civilians.