Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra suggested yesterday that a bomb destroyed a Thai Airways jetliner he was scheduled to board at Bangkok airport, and suggested that the assassination attempt was an inside job.
"It is relatively clear now it was not the engine, and the only thing that it could definitely be is an explosive device," Thaksin said in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
Thaksin had been due to fly with 148 other passengers from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on the Boeing 737-400 Saturday when it exploded 35 minutes before scheduled departure at the domestic terminal.
One cabin crew member died and seven airline staff were injured. No passengers had boarded the plane.
Thaksin said he had originally planned to go to Chiang Mai on Sunday but told his secretary Friday to change the flight to Saturday afternoon.
"If I was a target of the explosion, the one who placed the bomb would have had access to my schedule," he said.
Thaksin, who earlier was briefed by the national police chief, said he believed the blast was intended as a "threat to life" but was not the work of terrorists.
"I am not so sure that I was the target of this explosion ... but the ones who came with me were just my son and my secretary. I am not sure whether there were other important people on the plane or not. I guess not.''
Prasarn Wongwai, a former police general and adviser to Thaksin, said the source of the explosion "came from where the prime minister was supposed to be seated."
"I believe the bomb is the white phosphorus type," Prasarn said.
"I already talked to the prime minister and he seems to have a clue who did it. But he wouldn't want to talk too much because it might pressure the investigation officials," he said.
The Nation newspaper quoted a police source as saying that if a bomb was to blame, it could be linked to Thaksin's pledge to crack down on drug smuggling, largely blamed on drug lords in neighboring Myanmar.
Thaksin took power last month after his Thai Rak Thai, or Thai Love Thai, party won a general election by an unprecedented margin. The campaign was marred by violence and vote fraud, which is usual in Thai elections.
Thaksin said yesterday that his government's top priority over the next four years would be to curb the "rampant" drug trade. He will meet next weekend with all concerned government agencies to formulate a strategy.
Thaksin, who had flown to Chiang Mai by a military plane, opened a relative's shopping mall before returning to Bangkok later yesterday.
The Nation quoted an unidentified airline source as saying that the blast occurred under seats 11A and 11B, where Thaksin and his son, Phanthongthae, were supposed to sit.
Police Major General Tritos Ronnarithchai, responsible for security of VIPs in Thailand, said he had not received any intelligence of death threats to Thaksin.
Thaksin said Saturday his movements were now restricted for security reasons.
Thailand has a history of coups and violent overthrows of governments, but no prime minister has faced an assassination attempt. The nation has enjoyed political stability under a succession of democratic governments for the last eight years.
The prime minister had not reached the airport when the explosion occurred. No passengers or pilots had boarded the plane but the luggage had been loaded. A steward, Kampol Meerlap, who was preparing the front section of the aircraft, was killed.
Airline officials said it was impossible for the plane to explode from an internal malfunction if the engines had not yet been started. The fully loaded fuel tanks, located in the plane's wings, were intact, they said, indicating that burning fuel was not the cause of the explosion.
The explosion came two days after Thaksin gave Thailand's Constitutional Court 21 boxes of documents as part of his defense against a corruption indictment that could evict him from office.
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