Vendors dispute behind blast in Bangkok: police

Contradictory information surrounds the arrest of a suspect in connection with an explosion at Ramkhamhaeng street stalls in Bangkok’s Bang Kapi district that injured seven people on May 26. Police are now looking for three other suspects, all from the South.
Southern authorities and sources claim that 24-year-old Narathiwat man, Id-ris Satapor, had links with an insurgent group.
But national police chief Adul Saengsingkaew later dismissed the alleged link. He said while Id-ris was identified initially as a lookout for the bombing, Adul said he was the bomber in a vendors’ dispute.
Id-ris was nabbed on Monday in his house in Tambon Kokkian of Narathiwat’s Muang district.
Provincial investigator Pol Col Sathanfa Wamasing said Id-ris may have been involved with the insurgent group that murdered Wat Phrom Prasit abbot and two other monks in Pattani’s Panare district in October 2005. But he declined to elaborate, as it could affect the Bangkok bomb probe.
The Supreme Court in 2011 sentenced five people to life for the Wat Phrom Prasit slayings.
Another source in the South said Id-ris was a suspect in the motorcycle bombing of an Army student bus in Narathiwat’s Muang district last August.
However, Adul said Id-ris had no arrest warrants or prior arrests relating to the southern unrest. Adul said police were hunting for three other suspects, all southerners, in this Bangkok bomb case.
Despite an initial report that police identified Id-ris as being a lookout for the bomber, telling him when exactly to plant and set off the bomb, Adul said Id-ris had confessed to being the actual bomber.
He said Id-ris had been brought to Bangkok for further investigation. Police were still focusing on vendors’ conflict as a motive, rather than insurgent unrest.
Initial interrogation of Id-ris yielded the three other suspects’ names – Khamphi Lateh, Ibroheng Waemae and Harem Malee.
Meanwhile, there was another bomb attack on patrolling soldiers in the Deep South at 8.30am yesterday in Pattani’s Ma Yor district. The blast led to the death of Sgt Mumad Wattanabumrung, 25, leg injuries to Sgt Bakkrin Asae, 26, and slight injuries to a six-year-old girl who lived in the neighbourhood.
Another bomb attack in Yala’s Raman district wounded three paramilitary rangers. A third bomb two hours later in Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat missed a six-strong Army patrol but caused a power and telephone blackout in Sungai Kolok and Sungai Padi.
A retired Army intelligence officer, Pradit Sangsan, 70, was also shot dead in Pattani’s Nong Chik district yesterday afternoon before the shooter fled with the victim’s pistol.
There were three previous attempts on Pradit’s life. Police blamed separatists for the murder.