A car bomb explosion that slightly injured seven people on Koh Samui in southern Thailand might be linked to the country’s political turmoil, a spokesman for the Thai government said yesterday.
Initial reports indicated that the attack late on Friday was carried out by the same group behind recent blasts in Thailand’s capital that caused no fatalities, Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
He did not elaborate, but the leader of the junta who took power in a coup in May last year has blamed the Bangkok blasts on groups opposed to the military takeover.
Photo: EPA
In the Koh Samui explosion, an improvised bomb was hidden in a pickup truck in the basement parking area of the Central Festival mall and went off after a fashion show, the island’s disaster prevention and mitigation head Poonsak Sophonpathumrak said.
Seven people suffered minor injuries and were released from hospital without being kept overnight, Surat Thani Provincial Governor Chatpong Chatputi said.
Authorities said the pickup truck was likely stolen from one of the three southernmost Thai provinces plagued by an Islamic insurgency. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the three provinces since 2004.
The military linked the Koh Samui blast to two small bombs that exploded outside a major shopping mall in Bangkok in early February, slightly injuring two people.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said at the time that the blasts were aimed at discrediting the government.
Last month, a series of arrests were made in connection with a grenade that was tossed at Bangkok’s Criminal Court and those detained were apparently sympathizers of the antigovernment Red Shirt movement, which was formed by supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after he was deposed in a 2006 coup.
Government critics have suggested that some of the bombings might have been carried out by the military government to justify its continued suppression of basic rights and liberties.
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