Panitan believes Bangkok blasts masterminds were ‘insiders’

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a lecturer at Chualongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science, said more than one person might have been involved in planning and ordering the bomb attacks.

He said the masterminds could be called “insiders” because they were apparently aware about the handling of security affairs by government agencies during the transitional period after the end of the rule of the junta -- the National Council for Peace and Order.

“The planners, who gave the orders, apparently knew about certain mechanisms well. For example, they knew about the handing over of areas and missions of the national peacekeeping force to the police,” Panitan said.

“This led to a vacuum because the withdrawal of troops of the peacekeeping force brought to a halt the use of Article 44 [of the post-coup charter] and led to troops ending their monitoring and pressuring those with the potential to engage in violence.

“The police have a working style different from that of the soldiers, or the police might not have started working to the full extent yet.”

Panitan said one factor that provided an opportunity for the bombers to launch the attacks was the large deployment of the police force for security at the venue of the Asean Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bangkok.

Panitan said he believed the bomb attacks were likely planned for a long time and there might have been some trial runs to see if the bombers were well prepared before the attacks were launched when the masterminds saw a window of opportunity.

“They definitely knew about the internal affairs of the government well. In particular, they knew about the handing over of duties from the peacekeeping force. They knew about the change of command from the deputy prime minister to the prime minister.

“In other words, there were both changes of personnel and in the chain of command. More importantly, there was a change of government. Although the prime minister, the deputy prime minister and the interior minister continue in the new government, the situation has changed,” Panitan said.

In the new government, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha replaced General Prawit Wongsuwan as defence minister while Prawit became only a deputy PM. Prayut also replaced Prawit as the one supervising security affairs of both the Royal Thai Police and the Armed Forces.

Panitan said the incidents met all the textbook criteria of terror attacks.

“They were attacks based on the textbook to create public panic with the goal of embarrassing the government. The government immediately came under heavy pressure. Instead of proceeding with the task of ruling the country, the government would have to be worried about security,” Panitan said.

He said the government was lucky to have been able to arrest some suspects otherwise its credibility would have been severely dented.

Two men from Narathiwat province have reportedly been arrested for allegedly dropping two fake bombs in front of the Royal Thai Police headquarters in Bangkok on Thursday evening before the five blasts in the capital on Friday morning.