Thai Police Probing Bombing Link to Southern Violence

TAT governor Yuthasak Supasorn said the attacks could result in long-term losses in terms of tourist revenue and arrivals, mainly from other Asian countries.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) official checks at the scene of a bomb blast in Hua Hin, south of Bangkok, Thailand, in this still image taken from video August 12, 2016. Security forces comb through blood-spattered wreckage and debris.

A wave of explosions hit resort areas in Thailand on Thursday and Friday, killing at least four people and wounding 35 others, including tourists. So far, the conflict has claimed over 6,000 lives. The media gets bored with it.

It could also prove a unsafe incentive to carry out more violence.

Thai soldiers and sniffer dogs stand near Erawan Shrine, a popular tourist destination that was the site of a bomb attack nearly one year ago, in Bangkok.

If perpetrated by the insurgents, the attacks constituted the biggest and deadliest campaign yet outside their traditional area of operations, she said.

Pongsapat Pongcharoen, a deputy national police chief, told reporters on Saturday that no arrests had been made, but DNA samples collected at the blast sites would be compared with DNA samples stored in databases in the southern Muslim provinces. He said they forwarded the warrant request after finding the DNA of a known insurgent on a diffused bomb. But the confused response from Thai authorities left many with concerns that the real perpetrators had escaped justice.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will seek approval from the cabinet to make World Tourism Day (Tuesday, Sept. 27) a national holiday. It could be elements of a long-time separatist movement in southern Thailand, based in part on religious and ethnic differences between Buddhists and Muslims. The provinces in the south once belonged to a Malay sultanate which Thailand annexed in 1902.

“They were sent to various army camps”, added Winthai, who declined to say how many were detained, although rights groups fear the number runs into the dozens.

Talks, however, have gotten bogged down in such basic parameters as identifying the insurgents. It could be the Islamic State or al-Qaida seeking a toehold in Thailand. Security experts have said the involvement of the group, which is intensely monitored by the military, is highly unlikely. “They figure that the message is better heard through actions”.

He noted that the Erawan Shrine bombing in Bangkok on August 17 previous year had only a short-term adverse impact, with tourism affected by no more than one month.

The tourism industry accounts for more than 10 per cent of Thailand’s sluggish economy.

Police have also arrested Sakarin Karuehas, a 32-year-old oil rig worker originally from Chiang Mai.

The attacks occurred just days after the junta won a controversial referendum vote on a new constitution it drafted.

The new charter will curb the roles of the leading political parties, including the Pheu Thai and Democrat parties, as well as extend the military’s powers for at least for five years.

They also carried out more than 50 bombings during the first week of August alone.

In one of the incidents, a bomb went off on Monday morning in Bacho district, Narathiwat province, targeting government troops in motorcycles.

Stay on topic – This helps keep the thread focused on the discussion at hand. “This changed following the newspaper reports, but we didn’t hear anything from the hotel”.

Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk. We know who was behind it.