No groups have voiced to admit the culprits of those serial bombings last week, which killed four people and injured dozens of others, including European tourists.
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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the army chief who led the coup two years ago, has instructed the police to be thorough and cautious in their investigation, said Pongsapat, adding that police were “not catching scapegoats”.
On Friday, authorities quickly claimed the attacks were unrelated to global terrorism and described them as ” local sabotage”. They told a news conference Monday that several people have been detained by the military for questioning, but declined to provide details.
On Sunday (14 August) authorities recovered and diffused several unexploded devices from two blast sites – the beach town of Hua Hin and in Phuket – AFP quoted Grisada Boonrach, the interior ministry permanent secretary, as saying.
“It is likely they were meant to explode at the same time of the previous explosions”, said Grisada Boonrach, a Thai interior ministry spokesman.
In a statement on Sunday, MCMC said it would “work closely with police” to help find the suspect.
This time, the attacks focused on popular tourist resorts in South Thailand and Hua Hin, 220 km south of the Thai capital, on the Gulf of Thailand.
“It is just asking questions”.
Critics of Thailand’s military government accused it on Sunday of taking advantage of last week’s spate of deadly bombings and arson attacks to crack down on its opponents.
Numerous statements implied that the attacks were carried out by supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006 after being accused of abuse of power, corruption and disrespect to 88-year-old constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej. But the violence has not matched the coordinated nature of the latest bombings or targeted tourist towns.
On Aug. 7, the government held a successful referendum on a new constitution that will cement the military’s powerful hand in politics for years to come. Thirteen people were killed and more than 300 wounded in March 2012 when multiple bombs went off in Yala and Hat Yai, a bustling commercial centre north of the three southern provinces popular with Malaysian visitors.
Near-daily shootings and roadside bombs in the area have left more than 6,500 dead since 2004, a lot of them civilians.
Analysts say the rebels are frustrated over stalled negotiations with the military government.
Admitting the possible involvement of insurgents would mean that violence, once largely contained in the south, was “spreading to other parts of the country”, said Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat, an independent analyst who has written two books on the conflict.
But he said the junta would be loath to admit a major expansion of the conflict, since it would signal a significant “policy failure in the south”.
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It is widely understood that the authorities were casting suspicion upon supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who include the Red Shirts.
