Showing posts with label Turkish Suspect. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turkish Suspect. Show all posts

Sunday 30 August 2015

Turkish Suspect Arrested In Connection With Bangkok Bombing

A Thai police handout photo shows Turkish suspect Adem Karadag after his arrest Saturday in Bangkok in connection with a bombing August 17 at a central Bangkok shrine, which killed 20 people. A police spokesman said bomb-making materials were found at his apartment and they were similar to the device that detonated nearly two weeks ago. EPA

BANGKOK (DPA) - A foreign suspect was arrested Saturday in connection with a bombing this month at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, police said.
"We arrested a 28-year-old foreign national who had in his possession bomb-making materials, including fuses, ball bearings and pipes," police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said.

The materials were similar to the device used in the August 17 bombing, Prawut said, adding that the suspect probably was linked to the attack but might not have been the actual bomber.

The spokesman also showed a picture during a press conference of a dozen passports emblazoned with a crescent and star found in the possession of the suspect. Local media reported that the passports are Turkish in origin.

A police source who declined to be named said police acted on a tip from the landlord who owned the apartment that the suspect was renting.

The landlord grew suspicious because the suspect did not speak Thai and rented five rooms on the same floor of the apartment complex.

Local residents told reporters that the suspect had been living in the apartment for two weeks before the bombing at the Erawan shrine in the heart of Bangkok.

Kasem Pooksuwan, the motorcycle taxi driver who said he drove the suspect away from the bombing, said pictures released of the man arrested looked similar to the bomber.

"They have the same chin and nose," Kasem said.

Television footage late Saturday showed the suspect wearing a black hood being taken away from the apartment complex as onlookers watched.

Police said the suspect will be interrogated.

Anthony Davis - a regional security analyst with Britain's IHS Jane's, which provides intelligence to militaries and governments - said at a forum this week that the Bangkok bombing did not fit the pattern of attack of local and regional groups.

Davis said the most likely group to have carried out the attack is a far-right Turkish organization known as the Grey Wolves. Davis said that the motive for such an attack could have been the repatriation of Uigher refugees to China by the Thai government.
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