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Thai police say ready to prosecute 2 for Bangkok bombing

Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) chief Srivara Rangsipramanakul said Mr Karadag confessed to police that he owned the bomb-making materials after he was detained by army officers.

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Police used new surveillance images to confirm they had the man responsible for the bombing, the spokesman said.

Earlier in the month, Thailand’s police chief Somyot Poompanmoung blamed the blast on a gang of people-smugglers motivated by revenge for a crackdown on their lucrative trade.

Early on, authorities had focused their investigation on a man in a yellow shirt and wearing a backpack, captured in security camera footage at the shrine on the day of the bombing.

Four of the six people arrested last week were believed to be minority Uighur Muslims who come from China’s far western Xinjiang region said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay director of the Malaysian police counter-terrorism unit.

Thai police on Saturday said a man they had arrested over a deadly bombing at Bangkok’s Erawan shrine is the actual culprit, the media reported.

To lend weight to the claim, the leaked police report shows a man walking through Lumpini Park minutes after the blast, that due to numerous, entirely circumstantial elements, appears to pick up the trail of the Erawan Shrine bomber as he enters the park, changes clothing and walks out.

A Thai court on Wednesday approved an arrest warrant for a new suspect in the Bangkok bombings last month, bringing the total number of arrest warrants issued in connection with the incidents to 14.

According to the lawyer, who said he planned to see his client at the 11th Army Circle headquarters in Dusit area again on Monday, Karadag is obviously smaller in torso size than the man in the yellow T-shirt caught in the CCTV footage.

Police escorted the two men to the shrine and a nearby shopping mall in the Thai capital.

But there has been speculation the blast might have been ordered to punish Thailand for forcibly repatriating more than 100 Uighurs to China in July.

The other man is custody has been identified as Yusufu Mieraili, who was seized with a Chinese passport that police believe is real. The theory was bolstered by the fact that the Erawan Shrine is popular among Chinese tourists, who figured prominently among the victims of the bombing.

The names and nationalities of those suspects can not be divulged to the public for fear of more or less spoiling the unfinished investigation, they said.

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Thousands have fled China saying they face persecution, and it is believed some are allied with global jihadist groups.

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