Police examining data on recent Turkish visitors
POLICE are examining the pictures of Turkish people who travelled into Thailand during the 15 days preceding the deadly Erawan Shrine bomb blast in their efforts to nail down the bomber and his accomplices, an informed source disclosed yesterday.
“More than 20 Turkish people came in during the period,” the source said. Authorities, however, have been trying to downplay speculation that the blast might have had a link through militant members of a right-wing Turkish organisation known as the Grey Wolves.
According to speculation, the group might have been angered by the Thai government’s repatriation of Uighur refugees back to China. An arrest warrant has now been issued for a suspected bomber who does not look Thai.
“The speculation simply comes from analyses, each one based on information in the hands of each analyst,” national police commissioner Pol General Somyot Poompanmuang said. A big explosion rocked the Erawan Shrine on August 17, killing 20 people and injuring more than 100 others. On August 18, another bomb exploded near the Sathorn Pier but caused no casualties.
On Monday, Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst for IHS Jane’s, suggested the Grey Wolves might have played a role in the Bangkok bombing, possibly as revenge for Thailand’s deportation of more than 100 Uighurs to China.
The Turkish embassy in Bangkok told The Nation yesterday it was verifying information with the foreign ministry in Ankara over reports that some Turks may have been involved in the blast. When asked whether the Turkish government had been contacted by Thai Police for cooperation, embassy staff said they could not respond on this issue for the moment.
Thailand’s Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, neither confirms nor denies that the government has tried to reach its Turkish counterpart.
Police spokesman Pol Lt-General Prawut Thavornsiri, insisted police ’s database showed the Grey Wolves had never been active in Thailand.
“And no matter what, the bomb blast could have happened because of some Thais,” he said.
Somyot separately said that at this point, police could not disclose all information regarding the case.
He also thanked people who had given recordings from their security cameras to police to help with the ongoing investigations. “We are in the process of improving the picture quality of these recordings,” he added. He also thanked foreign governments that had offered modern technologies and equipment useful to the investigations. Another police source said police could collect latent fingerprints from the taxi that the suspected bomber hailed on August 17.
Justice Minister Paiboon Koom-chaya said his ministry would increase compensation for the families of each victim killed by the recent blast. “It will go up from Bt100,000 to Bt150,000,” he said. For foreigners, their families will get Bt300,000 extra each from the Tourism and Sports Ministry.
