Huge explosion rocks central Bangkok - casualties reported

[singveld]

History of thailand fake cctv since 2009, they also claim that no more faked cctv in 2014. I guess they have some delay.

Police Blame 'Fake CCTV' For No Footage of PCAD Stabbing

BANGKOK — Police say the alleged stabbing of an ice delivery man by anti-government protest guards was not captured on film because the nearest security camera turned out to be a "dummy" device.

The alleged attack has left the man, identified by his family as Thanakrit, in a coma in Ratchavithi Hospital’s intensive care unit.

According to police, the security camera installed close to where the attack took place was a "dummy" device placed by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. As a result, there is no footage of the incident, said Pol.Col. Wichai Daengpradap, a senior investigative officer at Phayathai Police Station.

Pol. Col. Wichai said that it will now be very difficult for police to identify the perpetrators, who faces were reportedly masked by balaclavas and scarves.

According to the victim’s family and witnesses, Mr. Thanakrit was driving his pick-up truck to deliver goods to a customer on Phahonyothin Road last Saturday when he encountered a checkpoint set up by supporters of the People's Committee for Absolute Democracy With the King As Head of State (PCAD) in front of Channel 5 TV station.

Mr. Thanakrit reportedly knocked over a traffic cone placed on the road by the PCAD guards. When he attempted to apologise, Mr. Thanakrit was immediately mobbed and stabbed by the guards, said his wife, who was with him at the time of the alleged attack.

His wife, Nanthawadee, met with Phayathai Police yesterday to give testimony to the officers.

Ms. Nanthawadee, who asked to be identified by first name only out of fear of being targeted, told police that her husband accidentally knocked over the traffic cone because it was raining and he could not see the obstacle on the road. She also denied the accusation that Mr. Thanakrit was drunk or trying to pick a fight with the guards.

Ms. Nanathawadee left the police station after two hours of interrogation and did not give any interviews with the media.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) installed a number of fake CCTVs in 2009 because of a delay in budget for functioning cameras, former BMA Governor Abhirak Kosayothin said in an interview in 2011.

In a report published by Matichon, Mr. Abhirak was quoted as saying that all dummy CCTVs would be replaced by real ones once the budget issues were sorted out.

The BMA recently insisted that there are no more fake CCTVs in the city. One BMA official went as far as claiming that anyone who finds a fake CCTV will be rewarded 100,000 baht by the authorities.

There is no word whether the Phayathai Police will claim the reward.

 

[singveld]

 

[singveld]

After Bangkok’s city leaders deployed decoy surveillance cameras across Bangkok to save money, Thai law enforcers are now sending out a squad of dummy policemen with real video cameras fitted to their heads to scare people into complying with the law—and to make them realize that the city’s battery of closed-circuit television cameras aren’t just empty boxes.

“People have to know this is the real deal,” said Pasakorn Prathombutra, director of research at Thailand’s national electronics and computer agency, affectionately patting one of the life-size fiberglass policemen he helped build and opening up a flap on the back of its head to reveal a camera inside.

“We used to hide our cameras before, but now we’ve got to make it obvious that we’re watching,” Mr. Pasakorn said. “People need to know they are real.”

Security cameras are quickly becoming part of everyday life, not just in the U.S. and Europe, but also around the world. Cities such as Bangkok, Singapore and Manila increasingly are following the pace set by New York and London in rolling out closed-circuit television networks to help scare off crooks. Surveillance experts say city leaders, real-estate developers and police forces frequently adopt the expensive systems to show visitors and business executives they can safely shop or do business in their town or mall. For some people, the distinctive, boxy CCTV camera is almost a symbol of good housekeeping.

The deterrent value, though, is all in the eye of the beholder, as Bangkok residents found out when city bosses admitted in September that many of cameras dotting the city were in fact cheap fakes. Now Bangkok’s chiefs have to buy expensive—and real—replacements to scare people back into line, and the dummy surveillance cops are the first step toward reasserting Big Brother’s control.

Thailand’s surveillance glitch began online. An eagle-eyed citizen posted pictures of empty camera boxes on the Internet, forcing Bangkok’s leaders into admitting that nearly half of the 3,000 or so cameras currently deployed are dummies, installed to create the illusion of an Orwellian-type surveillance state at a fraction of the cost.

The exposé was an embarrassment for the local government, which was trying at the time to prepare for the growing threat from massive floods bearing down on the capital. Internet users competed to photograph the most ridiculous-looking security camera; among the many candidates, one camera was captured pointed straight up in the air.

Still, using decoys isn’t quite as dumb as it sounds, some experts say.

“It seems a bizarre thing to do, but it actually makes sense considering the costs and the number of times real systems break down,” said Gavin Smith, a surveillance specialist and sociology professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. Worse, operators can grow quickly tired watching several screens, and are easily distracted by mobile phones or other gizmos.

Fake cameras, Mr. Smith says, “are also a smart way to leverage popular culture,” noting that reality shows relying in part on hidden cameras, such as the Big Brother franchise, are big hits around the world.

Problems arise, though, when people think all the cameras are fakes—an unusual example of what economists call the tragedy of the commons, or the abuse of shared resources, in this case exploiting the perception that surveillance cameras are real. That’s a real risk, especially in Thailand, which is a hotbed of knock-off items ranging from pirated DVDs to fake Rolex watches.

Thailand’s army even bought so-called bomb detectors from a British company that claimed to use electrostatic charges to detect explosives. The British government in 2010 banned the export of the devices to security services in Afghanistan and Iraq “based on the risk that they could cause harm to U.K. and other friendly forces.”

To help win back Thai people’s confidence in CCTV networks, Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra has vowed to replace the city’s dummy cameras with the real McCoy.

In the meantime, the city’s traffic police are wheeling out the new breed of fiberglass policemen with an eerie, fixed smile, whom they nickname Sergeant Lazy-Pants.

Thailand’s police force previously used dummy dummies, as it were. Bangkok’s finest plopped mannequins around the city to remind people to behave themselves, much as some homeowners or businesses rely on look-alike alarm or camera systems to ward off burglars.

It didn’t always work. Young Thais sometimes photographed themselves hugging or fondling the dummies and then uploading the results to Facebook or other social networking websites.

This time, the camera-ready dummies are designed to strike fear into the heart of Bangkok’s motorists. A dozen or so of the six-foot decoys are being sent out to well-known trouble spots around the city, where they salute traffic with a flashing red light to show that the camera is rolling. Drivers illegally jumping lanes or breaking other traffic rules will be photographed and fines sent to the addresses listed on their registration details.

“We’ll frighten the life out of them,” Mr. Pasakorn said.

Bangkok’s drivers, though, might be made of sterner stuff.

“I’m not afraid of these dummies,” said Ekachai Boonmatcha, 35 years old. “We all have a different style of driving and I like to go fast and swerve to avoid the potholes. If that’s a problem for the dummy, I’ll just ram it.”

 

[JHolmesJr]

Thais....they make some passable hookers thats about it.

 

[Susanoo]

Bangkok blast probe hindered by 15 broken security cameras along the main suspect's getaway route

PUBLISHED : Monday, 24 August, 2015, 3:13pm
UPDATED : Monday, 24 August, 2015, 3:33pm

Associated Press

The billboard displays 'Thailand's most wanted' with a detailed sketch of a man suspected of planting a bomb near the Erawan Shrine. Photo: EPA

Thailand’s police chief has revealed the investigation into last week’s bomb blast has been hampered by broken security cameras in central Bangkok along the main suspect’s getaway route.

National police chief Somyot Poompanmoung said that police were trying to “put pieces of the puzzle together” but had to use their imagination to fill holes where street side security cameras were broken and unable to record his movements.

One week after last Monday’s bombing at the capital’s revered Erawan Shrine, which left 20 people dead and scores injured, police appeared no closer to tracking down suspects or determining a motive for the attack.

There are 20 security cameras dotted along the route of the suspect's getaway but only five work. Photo: EPA

Police have released an artist sketch of the prime suspect who is seen in security camera footage from the open-air shrine leaving a backpack at a bench and walking away. The explosion takes place 15 minutes later.

But the images are blurry and after the suspect leaves the scene, the security cameras were broken at key spots along his suspected path, Somyot said.

“Sometimes there are 20 cameras on the street but only five work,” Somyot said, openly frustrated as he spoke to reporters. “We have to waste time putting the dots together.”

“The footage jumps around from one camera to another, and for the missing parts police have to use their imagination,” he said, adding that the Thai police lack the sophisticated equipment seen in popular TV crime shows, like CSI.

The billboard displays 'Thailand's most wanted' with a detailed sketch of a man suspected of planting a bomb near the Erawan Shrine. Photo: EPA

“Have you seen CSI?” Somyot asked reporters. “We don’t have that,” he said, referring to high-tech equipment that can render blurry footage clear.

He said that Thailand has “asked for cooperation from countries with better equipment and technology.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said that he had received offers of assistance from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok and had assigned his deputy “to cooperate on borrowing equipment that includes facial-recognition technology.

However, Prayuth ruled out working with U.S. investigators, insisting Thais can do the job.

On Sunday, Somyot said that investigators will “need some luck” to catch the perpetrators whom are suspected to have already left the country.

 

[Susanoo]

A Uygur connection? Thai police look at arrivals of Turkish nationals days before Bangkok blast

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 4:07pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 4:07pm

Reuters in Bangkok

Vehicles pass by a digital billboard showing the sketch of a man suspected to be the Bangkok bomber in central Bangkok. Photo: AFP

Thai police on Thursday said they were looking at arrivals of Turkish nationals in the days before a Bangkok bomb attack that killed 20 people, but said they had not ruled out any group or possibility.

Police and some security analysts have raised the possibility of a connection to the Uygurs - a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from the far west of China. They complain of persecution by Beijing.

China’s treatment of the Uygurs is an important issue for many Turks, who see themselves as sharing a common cultural and religious background.

Last month more than 100 Uygurs were deported from Thailand to China - a move that prompted widespread condemnation by rights groups and sparked a protest outside Thailand’s consulate in Istanbul.

National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said police had checked arrivals of Turkish nationals who entered Thailand around two weeks before the blast.

A Thai soldier greets Hong Kong tourists at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok. Photo: Xinhua

"There are probably more Turkish coming into Thailand than that. We investigated groups which may have come into the country," said Prawut, in response to whether police had investigated 15 Turkish nationals.

"We checked, but not 15 people," Prawut said, adding that police have not ruled out any group or nationality.

"We are not focused on the nationality but the individual," he said, without giving further details.

The main evidence police have for the blast at the Hindu Erawan Shrine popular with Asian tourists is security camera footage.

The footage shows a man with a yellow shirt and dark hair removing a backpack after entering the shrine and walking away from the scene before the explosion.

Twelve of the 20 dead in Monday’s attack were foreigners, including nationals from China, Hong Kong, Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with IHS-Jane’s, speaking at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand on Monday, said there were three "likely groupings" which have the motive and the capability to pull off the attack.

The most likely perpetrators of the bombing were militant members of a right-wing Turkish organisation called the Grey Wolves, a pan-Turkic, extreme right-wing organisation, he said.

Davis said their motive may have been revenge for Thailand’s deportation of ethnic Uygurs to China.

"The Uygur cause is something they’ve latched onto in a big way," he said, adding that the Grey Wolves were "at the front of the queue" during an attack on the Thai consulate in Istanbul last month by a mob protesting Thailand’s decision to extradite the Uygurs.

 

[Susanoo]

Youngest Hong Kong victim of Bangkok blast Jasmine Chu on the road to recovery after flying home

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 4:28am
UPDATED : Thursday, 27 August, 2015, 2:45pm

Danny Mok
[email protected]

Jasmine Chu was brought to Princess Margaret Hospital shortly before 3am after a flight from Bangkok. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Jasmine Chu Sum-yu, the youngest Hong Kong victim of last week’s deadly bombing in Bangkok, is recovering in a local hospital after returning home from the Thai capital early this morning.

The nine year old and her father were brought to Princess Margaret Hospital shortly before 3am after a flight from Bangkok, where their holiday in one of the most popular tourist destinations for Hongkongers turned into a nightmare.

Her father Chu King-fun, 61, said : “I'm relieved now as I’m back home. Now, all I’m concerned about is the recovery of my girl.”

Chu King-fun, father of Jasmine Chu Sum-Yu. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Jasmine and her father, a retiree from a stock brokerage, were on a five-day holiday in the Thai capital when they were caught up in the bomb attack that killed 20 people on August 17.

She suffered shrapnel wounds in her thigh when an explosion ripped through the famous Erawan Shrine, a popular attraction among East Asian tourists, shortly after 7pm. Her father escaped with slight injuries.

A Thai friend who was with the Chu family was not so lucky; she was confirmed dead at the scene.

The blast left Jasmine in danger of losing her leg and she underwent a seven-hour operation last week to remove a large piece of shrapnel from her thigh. That was her third round of surgery in a Bangkok hospital.

Chu looked relieved to be home and had good news about his daughter’s condition: “She’s making good progress, especially over the past two days.”

He expected her future treatment to be mostly physiotherapy. “I hope no more surgery will be needed,” he said. “There will still some little pieces [of shrapnel] in her belly but the doctors did not recommend another retrieval as they posed no risks.”

Jasmine Chu

Jasmine, a student from Ling Liang Church Sau Tak Primary School in Tung Chung, was expected to go to primary four when the school year started next week.

Chu said it was too late for that, but he would meet the school management to discuss a special arrangement for his daughter.

“My injuries are too minor. I'm okay,” he said as he expressed gratitude to the Hong Kong government and his insurance firm, which took care of all their medical fees.

Jasmine’s arrival marks the return of all six Hongkongers injured in the Bangkok bombing.

Two young Hong Kong women and four mainlanders were among the 20 killed in the attack. The bodies of Vivian Chan Wing-yan, 19, and Arcadia Pang Wan-chee, 24, were brought back home on Saturday.

 

[Microsoft]

The nine year old and her father were brought to Princess Margaret Hospital shortly before 3am after a flight from Bangkok,

Jasmine, a student from Ling Liang Church Sau Tak Primary School in Tung Chung, was expected to go to primary four when the school year started next week.

9 yrs old...boey siang leh...moi tot ish mother of 2...:p

 

[singveld]

the thai police is horrible.
they search the place with hundreds of police to contaminate the scene of the crime. You see the west, the police only send a small number of special police that wear white cleanroom suit.
they clean up the place in the second day so that no more tests can be run. they do not even know what type of explosive. if they do not have the skill and equipment, could they not seal the place up, and get USA to help them. No.

Then they tell us most of the cameras are fake or faulty.
Unbelievable.

 

[singveld]

Bangkok Bombing Update: Thailand Economy Will Not Be Hurt Greatly By Deadly Explosion, Official Says

A government office in Thailand said Friday that the Aug. 17 Erawan shrine bombing that killed 20 people would have little impact on the economy, predicting it would take only 0.05 percent off of the country’s gross domestic product, according to a report from local English-language newspaper the Bangkok Post. The Fiscal Policy Office’s Deputy Director General Ekniti Nitithanprapas said that the tourism-dependent nation is expected to see a downturn in holiday travelers with a loss of approximately 300,000 foreign visitors over the next several months.

“The bombing will certainly not cause a huge impact to the number of foreign tourists, as feared by many people,” Nitithanprapas said. “The tourism sector will return to normal in time for the [November-April] high season. Tourism will continue to be an important factor supporting the growth of the Thai economy.”

While the Thai government is reporting a quick bounce-back, The Telegraph reported that the bombing has caused a 17 percent drop in tourists, with daily arrivals to the Southeast Asian nation falling to 70,000 a day from 85,000. However, the head of the World Travel and Tourism Council told the Telegraph that he expects tourism numbers to rebound and has not seen any mass cancellations in vacations for the next six months.

Revenue from tourism makes up approximately 7 percent to 10 percent of Thailand’s gross domestic product. Nitithanprapas told the Bangkok Post that he believes Thailand’s economic growth will hit 3 percent despite the attack.

The Erawan shrine, a Hindu site popular with Buddhists and tourists, has reopened since the bombing in a busy area of Bangkok. Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said the bombing was the worst ever attack on his country. Fourteen tourists were among those killed in the blast and other tourists sustained injuries. The youngest victim was a 4-year-old girl, according to reports.

Without naming the suspect, Thai police said on Friday that it had issued a warrant in the attack. However, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack and motives remain unclear.

Thailand's tourism sector has managed to bounce back from previous instability, including political unrest in 2014 and the massive Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.

 

[singveld]

For Thailand’s economy, bombs aren’t the biggest problem

A recent fatal bombing drew attention away from Thailand’s bigger problems: China’s slowdown and a lack of innovation.

By the end of last week, Bangkok’s Erawan shrine was showing signs of healing. Thailand’s economy, less so.

The Hindu holy spot, the site where 20 people died in an Aug. 17 bombing that was Thailand’s worst terrorist attack ever, was quickly re-opened to visitors, hundreds of whom laid flowers as camps of photographers popped pictures. Tourists again crowded the area around the shrine, a main avenue in the center of town. Mike Argabright, a retired engineer from Ventura, Calif., who has lived in Bangkok for eight years, came out to see the scene for himself. He said he hadn’t noticed dramatic changes in the city since the bombing: “Maybe a few more police checkpoints.”

In many people’s minds, the immediate question for Thailand’s economy was what effect the explosion would have on tourism. And for good reason: Tourism drove all of the 2.8% second quarter expansion in Thailand’s economy; without the flood of Chinese and Singaporean visitors, its economy would have recorded zero growth. Last week, cancellations hit expensive restaurants and hotels. But analysts have already turned sanguine, predicting the bombing’s effect on visitors will taper off in time for the high season that starts in October (assuming that no other fatal attack follows it).

As serious as the Erawan bombing, was, the attention it attracted was also a distraction from Thailand’s much larger problems. In the past couple of months, a struggling China has emerged as the biggest threat to Thailand’s weak recovery. When pundits talk about the fallout from China’s slowdown, they are essentially talking about Thailand: China is Thailand’s largest export market, and Chinese tourists were responsible for 85% of the growth in arrivals this year, according to Credit Suisse.

The country’s Oxford-educated former finance minister, Korn Chatikavanij, says Thai economists began the year worrying about the Fed raising U.S. interest rates. “Everyone paid lip service to the problems out of China,” says Chatikavanij. “Now all of a sudden, what the U.S. does with interest rates is insignificant relative to the contraction of the Chinese economy.” After China devalued its currency this month, for example, in a move at least partially aimed at making Chinese exports more competitive at the expense of its neighbors’, Thailand’s government forecaster cut GDP growth predictions for this year by 0.3%, to 2.7%.

Unfortunately for Thais, no matter what happens in China, the country is facing a bigger and longer-term problem: their economy is a shining example of what economists call the middle-income trap. Such stagnation often hits developing economies that quickly rise because of cheap labor and big capital investments but then fail to advance once those advantages dry up. Thailand’s people might not be very poor anymore, but they’re not moving to the rich category either, unlike some of their Asia Pacific neighbors.

Over the past two decades, Thailand has exported high-quality products to the West—cars for U.S. and Japanese automakers, hard-disk drives—but it hasn’t created the kinds of innovations that are measures of a maturing economy. One venture capitalist in Bangkok told me Thailand is still waiting for its first prominent startup. In 2010, Thais made $4,300 annually on average, the same as the Chinese. By 2014, the average Chinese income had grown by 70% to $7,380, according to the World Bank. Thailand, by contrast saw incomes increase only 25%, to $5,400.

“You can understand why nothing much is happening,” says Chatikavanij. “The growth of the past 15 years has largely been driven by exports, which have fueled investment to meet export demand. But the kinds of things we export are going out of fashion. Our largest exports were hard-disk drives. Who uses that anymore?”

The economy’s current growth rate feels like a recession in a country that almost everyone agrees has the potential to be growing at least 5% a year.

“We know we have to create new products,” says Somprawin Manprasert, an associate professor of economics at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “We’ve been developed for one or two decades. What’s holding us back?” He concludes it is a mix of weak business law protecting intellectual property (fake DVDs and shoes can be found everywhere in Thailand) and an engrained tendency to fight foreign competition by cutting prices—not improving quality. Both problems stall innovation and economic progress. “The problem is deep and structural,” Manprasert says.

A number of crises, both natural and manmade, have struck Thailand over the past several years. The country experienced devastating floods in 2006, then again in 2011, before crippling political protests starting in 2013 eventually led to the latest coup d’état in May 2014. (Thailand has witnessed 12 successful coups.)

Now in its second year of governing, the junta has focused its attention on problems long plaguing Thailand—airline safety, human trafficking, government corruption—but not on the economy directly. Public money pledged for infrastructure projects has been slow to appear, analysts say, as the projects are subjected to a new rigorous bid process to weed out graft. While that may benefit the economy in the long run, for now it’s further stalling a weak recovery.

The sputtering growth is having domino effects. Foreign investors, which include automakers Ford and Honda and drive makers Seagate and Western Digital, are wary of investing before economic growth improves. Last year approvals from the government for U.S. company investments rose five-fold, but investment hasn’t followed the applications. That means “companies have approval to move forward, but they are taking a wait and see approach,” says Citibank’s head of Thailand Darren Buckley.

Buckley, who’s also president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand, says U.S. businesses have told him that arrests in the Erawan bombing case would go a long way to calm jitters among potential investors. The search for the bombers is ongoing. But Thailand’s past bombing investigations, many of which have ended without any arrests, don’t inspire confidence.

Many Thais are getting used to what they see as a normal routine of coups and bombings. “We’ve been in this limbo for so long that we’re sort of immune to it,” says Nucha Sibunruang, 33, who runs a fuel technology company and trucking business, over drinks at an upscale restaurant one subway stop down from the bombed shrine. It’s a hot humid night. We’re surround by half a dozen of his friends, young people in business, who—in between gulps of beer poured over ice cubes—laugh off questions about the bombing changing their routine.

Sibunruang belongs to the fourth generation in his family’s business conglomerate. He says friends of his who own hotels suffered through 30% occupancy two years ago during political protests, but his company has grown steadily—private businesses are a counterbalance to the country’s less productive government-owned sector. (Private production comprises about 40% of Thai GDP.)

Sibunruang’s wife, Vasana Jantarach, 35, a member of the second generation in her family’s food business Exotic Foods, says she also paid little attention to the bombing. Currency fluctuations are her bigger worry. When the dollar is strong, Exotic Foods’ Thai sauces are cheaper and sell well in the U.S.; when the euro weakens, business falls in Europe. Sales were up recently in China, where buyers use Exotic Foods’ green curry paste as a dip for barbeque meat, but this month’s yuan devaluation will make sauces more expensive for the Chinese, a problem higher on Jantarach’s mind than an isolated attack in Bangkok.

Locals are looking for bright spots in the economic malaise. “I usually tell my friends in the States, these are the best of times to visit Thailand because of the bargains,” says the retired Argabright. “After every negative event, tourism always eventually comes back.” The bigger question is when the broader economy will follow

 

[singveld]

Thai police question 3 Uygurs over Bangkok bombing as hunt continues

Thai police on Friday said three Uygur Muslims, among dozens detained in the kingdom for illegal entry last year, had been questioned over the deadly Bangkok bombing.

Eleven days on from the bombing at Erawan shrine, which killed 20 people and wounded scores more, authorities are hunting for a prime suspect who police describe as a foreign man.

No arrests have been made, despite the circulation of grainy CCTV footage of the lead suspect.

Security analysts have speculated that China’s ethnic Uygur minority – or their co-religious sympathisers – may have been behind the attack, motivated by Thailand’s forced repatriation of more than 100 Uighur refugees last month to an uncertain fate in China.

“Police in (eastern) Sa Kaeo province have questioned three Uygurs,” national police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung said in Bangkok on Friday, without giving any further details.

Twelve of the 20 dead in the attack were foreigners, including nationals from China, Hong Kong, Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Scores of suspected Uygurs – a Turkic-speaking minority in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who have long chafed under Chinese control – were sentenced for illegal entry in Thailand in March 2014.

Many were found to have entered the kingdom along its eastern border with Cambodia, with the biggest check point in Sa Kaeo province, as others were discovered during a raid on a suspected people-smuggling camp in the kingdom’s deep south.

They presented themselves to police as Turkish and were held in detention as Thai authorities determined their nationalities, amid a bitter tussle between Turkey and China over where they should be moved.

Then in July, Thailand suddenly deported 109 Uygurs to China – a move widely condemned by rights groups and the US over fears for their safety – while an earlier group of 172 women and children were sent to Turkey.

At the time the Thai junta said around 50 Uygur Muslims remained in immigration detention facilities, as their nationalities were being confirmed.

A Thai police spokesman on Thursday refused to “exclude any possibility” when asked whether Turkish nationals in the country had been questioned over the Bangkok shrine bomb.

Thai police have so far issued one arrest warrant for the unidentified man suspected of the shrine bombing and a second for a man over a blast the following day near a popular tourist pier, which sent people scurrying but caused no injuries.

 

[singveld]

A Uygur connection? Thai police look at arrivals of Turkish nationals days before Bangkok blast

Thai police on Thursday said they were looking at arrivals of Turkish nationals in the days before a Bangkok bomb attack that killed 20 people, but said they had not ruled out any group or possibility.

Police and some security analysts have raised the possibility of a connection to the Uygurs - a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from the far west of China. They complain of persecution by Beijing.

China’s treatment of the Uygurs is an important issue for many Turks, who see themselves as sharing a common cultural and religious background.

Last month more than 100 Uygurs were deported from Thailand to China - a move that prompted widespread condemnation by rights groups and sparked a protest outside Thailand’s consulate in Istanbul.

National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said police had checked arrivals of Turkish nationals who entered Thailand around two weeks before the blast.

"There are probably more Turkish coming into Thailand than that. We investigated groups which may have come into the country," said Prawut, in response to whether police had investigated 15 Turkish nationals.

"We checked, but not 15 people," Prawut said, adding that police have not ruled out any group or nationality.

"We are not focused on the nationality but the individual," he said, without giving further details.

The main evidence police have for the blast at the Hindu Erawan Shrine popular with Asian tourists is security camera footage.

The footage shows a man with a yellow shirt and dark hair removing a backpack after entering the shrine and walking away from the scene before the explosion.

Twelve of the 20 dead in Monday’s attack were foreigners, including nationals from China, Hong Kong, Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst with IHS-Jane’s, speaking at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand on Monday, said there were three "likely groupings" which have the motive and the capability to pull off the attack.

The most likely perpetrators of the bombing were militant members of a right-wing Turkish organisation called the Grey Wolves, a pan-Turkic, extreme right-wing organisation, he said.

Davis said their motive may have been revenge for Thailand’s deportation of ethnic Uygurs to China.

"The Uygur cause is something they’ve latched onto in a big way," he said, adding that the Grey Wolves were "at the front of the queue" during an attack on the Thai consulate in Istanbul last month by a mob protesting Thailand’s decision to extradite the Uygurs.

 

[singveld]

Finally, they found a scapegoat, if you are the plumber in thailand, better becareful.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thai police arrest Bangkok bomb suspect

Thai police have arrested a suspect in connection with the bomb attack on a Hindu temple in central Bangkok that killed 20 people, including a British national.

A police spokesman told Reuters that the arrested man fitted the description of the main suspect in the attack on the Erawan shrine in the central Chidlom district of the Thai capital.

Police arrested the suspect on Saturday in Nong Jok, on the northern outskirts of Bangkok.

Officers raided an apartment used by the man and discovered possible bomb-making materials, police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said. The suspect “looks like the one we are looking for”, he said. “They also found a lot of materials which can be used to make bombs.”

Prawut said that the person who had been arrested was a foreigner, but refused to say if he was Turkish, as had been reported by some Thai media.

BBC correspondent Jonathan Head tweeted that Thai police do not believe the man arrested on Saturday was responsible for the bombing.

Thai media published photographs of a man who did not appear to be Thai in a yellow shirt and beige shirts sitting in front of two police with his hands cuffed. In front of him lay plastic bags which reports said were full of bomb-making materials.


Police have not confirmed whether the man was the same as the suspect captured dropping a black rucksack off at the blast scene minutes before the explosion. The hair of the man in police photos was much lighter and he had a short beard.

Police say they have sent plain-clothed officers to bars and restaurants frequented by foreigners to try to find the suspect.

Immigration officers at Bangkok’s international airport have a printpit of the digital sketch of the suspect caught on the CCTV on the night of the bombing. Some sketches show him without glasses, wearing a hat or with no hair.

The military government said on Thai TV that the arrested man was in possession of detonators, ball bearings and a pipe. Authorities say the blast was caused by a pipe bomb.

Footage of a stack of passports was also shown on the broadcast. Police said 100 officers were involved in the operation.

Police have released a photo of the man’s passport, which appears to be badly made, with two expiry dates shown. The document appeared to be a Turkish passport, belonging to a man born in 1987.

The main evidence in the case has been grainy CCTV footage of a man in a yellow T-shirt dropping a black backpack near the shrine minutes before an explosion ripped through it on 17 August.


Days later police released a detailed electronic sketch of the suspect, showing a thin man with dark, shaggy hair and a light complexion, wearing black-rimmed glasses and wristbands on both arms.

The image has been widely circulated in Thailand, including on roadside billboards, along with offers of a reward for information leading to an arrest. The total reward on offer from both police and private citizens last week stood at more than £200,000.

Police are yet to determine a clear motive for the bombing at the Erawan shrine - an attraction popular with Chinese tourists as well as Thais, which also left more than 120 people injured.

 

[looneytan]

Police are holding a man with a fake Turkish passport on explosives possession charges following an arrest in the first possible breakthrough in the deadly Ratchaprasong bombing two weeks ago. National...

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/673552/police-hold-possible-bomb-suspect. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Post Publishing PCL. All rights reserved.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/673552/police-hold-possible-bomb-suspect

 

[NanoSpeed]

Thailand has plenty of monks and kroos that can predict and trace using prophetic and supernatural power.

Have they tried it ?

 

[looneytan]

Thailand has plenty of monks and kroos that can predict and trace using prophetic and supernatural power.

Have they tried it ?

They asked four face buddha to point that guy out for them

 

[baahubali]

Thailand has plenty of monks and kroos that can predict and trace using prophetic and supernatural power.

Have they tried it ?

They asked four face buddha to point that guy out for them

Not funny at all

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

The Religion of Pieces again. The religion of genocide, rape, slavery and sex. Why Muslims dont leave this shot crime syndicate? :*:

 

[THE_CHANSTER]

The Religion of Pieces again. The religion of genocide, rape, slavery and sex. Why Muslims dont leave this shot crime syndicate? :*:

It early days to definitely point the finger at Muslims. From what I've read, the suspect is a foreigner with a fake Turkish passport. He isn't even the person in the photofit or even the bomber himself.

Let's see what else these police jokers will disclose.