Thailand is pursuing ten suspects in relation to the Bangkok bombing on Monday, stating that they do not believe the attack was the work of an international terror group. Two suspects have handed themselves in following two more bomb attacks on Tuesday, but police still do not know whether the three attacks are linked.
Speculation has been circulating that the attack was prompted by the struggle between the two prominent political groups in the nation, the Red Shirts and the Yellow Shirts. Past protests between the two have turned violent, but no group has been directly blamed for the recent attacks.
There was a bomb attack in a Bangkok mall soon after the impeachment of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The Red Shirts form the base of Yingluck’s support and were therefore highly suspected in that attack.
There have been numerous other bomb attacks this year, and the Red Shirts have been blamed in some of those cases.
A reward of $28,000 was offered by the police to anyone who could give information regarding the current case.
Another possible suspect could be the ethnic Uighurs, who are a Muslim minority in China. In July, Thailand forced 109 Uighurs to return to China in opposition to protests from the UN and human rights groups, who claim they face persecution there.
Still another possibility is the Malay Muslims on Thailand’s southern border, who have killed over 6,400 people in that region. However, such attacks have never taken place as far north as Bangkok.
Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha seems to be moving the investigation more towards Yingluck’s Red Shirt supporters. The group has never carried out a mass casualty bombing such as occurred on Monday, and Thai police investigations are notoriously corrupt.
There would be strong incentive to implicate the Red Shirts in any attack in order to reinforce Prayut’s authority.
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