Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha yesterday said 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.
The blast occurred on Monday in one of the Thai capital’s most popular tourism hubs, ripping through a crowd of worshipers at a Hindu shrine close to five-star hotels and upscale shopping malls.
Taiwanese, Chinese, Hong Kongers, Singaporeans, Indonesians and Malaysians were among at least 20 people killed, police said.
Photo: Reuters
More than 100 other people were injured as the blast left body parts strewn across crushed pavement, alongside shattered windows and incinerated motorcycles.
Prayuth yesterday branded the bombing the “worst-ever attack” on Thailand, as he said the hunt was on for a suspicious man filmed on closed circuit television near the shrine.
“Today there is a suspect... We are looking for this guy,” Prayuth told reporters.
Police released CCTV footage showing the apparently young man in a yellow T-shirt walking near the shrine wearing a backpack, but then a short time later walking away without it.
“Things are becoming clearer now,” Thai Minister of Defense Prawit Wongsuwon told reporters, although he declined to give details and authorities did not reveal if they had any motives for the attack.
Prayuth said the male suspect was believed to be from an “anti-government group based in Thailand’s northeast” — the heartland of the kingdom’s Red Shirt movement that opposes the military junta.
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 then-Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The Red Shirts are a grassroots network of rural and urban poor that are loyal to Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
However, no one claimed responsibility for the assault and security analysts expressed skepticism over the government’s lightning move to cast suspicion on its opponents.
“Even if they [Red Shirts] are hell-bent on bringing down the government, I just can’t see them targeting a Hindu or any other religious shrine,” independent expert on Thai security Zachary Abuza said. “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.
However, they have never been known to carry out substantial attacks in Bangkok, and Abuza and other analysts said Monday’s bombing did not follow the insurgents’ typical modus operandi.
Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs in Thailand, said groups with links to military factions also had to be considered potential suspects.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique