Thailand’s junta yesterday said that more than a dozen suspects were being detained at military barracks on suspicion of launching a string of deadly bomb and arson attacks at tourist resort towns last week.
No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing spree, which hit tourist towns in the nation’s south on Thursday and Friday last week, killing four and wounding dozens, including European visitors.
The attacks were highly unusual in a country where foreign visitors and tourist towns are rarely caught up in the country’s frequent bouts of political violence.
Photo: AFP
“Authorities have detained 17 suspects at the special 11th Army Circle barracks in Bangkok, but we released two of them,” Colonel Burin Tongprapai, the junta’s top legal adviser, told reporters.
He added that authorities were now looking to re-detain those two released suspects and that the entire group is likely to be charged today.
Burin’s comments highlight the primary role the military have played in the investigation and is the first official admission that scores of suspects have been held since the bombings on army barracks.
Local human rights groups had previously said more than a dozen suspects were being held without access to lawyers and urged greater transparency in the investigation.
Authorities have remained tight-lipped on the motive of the attackers behind last week’s attack or the identities of anyone detained.
However, police and the military quickly ruled out international terrorism, saying the perpetrators were “local saboteurs.”
The assaults struck on the Queen’s birthday just days after a controversial military-crafted constitution was passed in a referendum vote where independent campaigning was banned.
A number of analysts say the most likely culprits are Islamist militants who have fought a lengthy, but local insurgency in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces.
The attacks bore many hallmarks of the southern insurgents, who never claim their operations, including coordinated multiple strikes and the type of devices used.
However, the junta leadership has been adamant that the deep south conflict has not spread north, fearful that such an admission might harm tourism.
Instead they have hinted at involvement of factions within the so-called Red Shirt movement loyal to ousted former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The military toppled Thaksin in 2006, sparking years of debilitating protests culminating in a second coup against an elected administration run by his sister, Yingluck, in 2014.
The Red Shirts have denied any suggestion of involvement and accused the junta of using the bomb blasts to roll out a fresh crackdown against them.
No details were given about the identity of the 17 suspects, their faith or their alleged motives.
The army barracks where the suspects are being detained is controversial.
A special military prison was set up there after the junta seized power to hold high value suspects.
Two former aides of Thailand’s crown prince who were arrested for royal defamation died in custody at the barracks and were quickly cremated in yet to be fully explained circumstances. A third suspect in that investigation remains incarcerated there.
Two Chinese nationals accused of involvement in last summer’s bomb attack against a Bangkok religious shrine that left 20 dead are also being held there.
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