A key suspect in last month’s bombing at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people has fled to Turkey, Thai police said Monday, in another indication that the attack could be the work of members of China’s ethnic Uighur minority who have sympathizers in Turkey.
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The September 17 warrant names Abdul Tawab on charges of conspiracy to possess explosives and unauthorized war materials. Twelve previous warrants seek the arrests of a Thai woman and 11 men who are believed to be Turkish or Chinese, or whose nationalities are unknown.
Thailand has earlier detained two suspects in connection with the blasts and issued arrest warrants for 12 others. He was captured at an apartment in Bangkok where some bomb-making materials were also seized on August 26.
“We have yet to verify whether he really is her husband”.
“We might copy the barcodes and pass them to Turkey for verification”, he said. “Nor have the Thai authorities informed us that a terrorism suspect was traveling to Turkey”. “While we can’t identify the mastermind, we don’t think Ishan (Abudusataer Abudureheman) is the man. Tawab could be a facilitator while Panissara might have known about the illegal entry and given the perpetrators refuge”, he added.
Somyot said the Thai police team sent to Malaysia on Aug 15 might not get a chance to directly interrogate the suspects, but a second team sent today might have a chance to talk with the suspects tomorrow or the day after, once the Malaysian police had done their investigations.
The Royal Thai Police Chief has claimed he has never said the Ratchaprasong blast was triggered by Thailand’s deportation of Uighurs to China. ” Most of them were not forced, they wanted to go to this and that country without being caught”, Prawut said.
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“I admit I might have jumped to conclusion”. Thai police needed assistance from the Turkish embassy to check more than 250 passports that police had retrieved from the apartment where Muhammed was nabbed. “In the meantime, we’re checking with the United Arab Emirates and India as Ishan was said to have gone through Abu Dhabi and India”, he said.
