By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thai police have reiterated that a Bangkok bombing that killed 20 people had "no connection with international terrorism" and was instead related to "people smuggling", a day after the arrest of a foreign suspect.
General Prawuth Thavornsiri, police spokesman, told Channel 3 TV on Sunday that the 28-year-old suspect, whose nationality has yet to be determined, was involved in people smuggling.
"The gang [to which he belongs] is unsatisfied with police arresting illegal entrants," he said, adding that more than 200 fake passports had been found in a suburban apartment where the suspect was arrested Saturday.
"It is a network that fakes passports and sends the illegal migrants towards third countries," Thavornsiri said.
Images provided during a Thai junta briefing Saturday evening showed a stack of forged Turkish passports that were reportedly found at the site, alongside bomb-making materials similar to those used in the Aug. 17 explosion that left 20 dead and more than 120 others wounded.
Thawornsiri told The Nation later Sunday that the Turkish Embassy in Bangkok had denied that the suspect is a Turkish citizen.
He added that Thai authorities had been offered assistance from several embassies in verifying the nationality of the man, who is being held at a military facility and continues to deny involvement in the explosion.
General Somyot Pumpanmuang, outgoing Thai police chief, insisted late Saturday, after initial interrogation of the suspect, that the bombing at the Hindu shrine was not connected to international terrorism.
"He is a foreigner, but it is unlikely he belongs to any international terrorist group," he told the Khaosod news website.
"His motive was personal vengeance. He felt vengeful on behalf of his friends," he added, without providing further details.
He underlined that police are seeking other suspects who "have been in Thailand for years" and are connected with the detained man.
"Our intelligence has information about who they are, how they arrived and what they did this for. They belong to a network of lawbreakers," Pumpanmuang said.
He declined to disclose more details on the grounds that it could jeopardize the ongoing investigation.
An unnamed police source told the Bangkok Post on Sunday that the arrest came after police officials spent more than a week sifting through mobile phone calls made near the Erawan Shrine.
An image provided earlier by police of the suspect’s passport showed a misspelled Istanbul birthplace, a Turkish name and two dates of expiry in English.
Turkish authorities told Anadolu Agency late Saturday that they had appealed to Thai officials for information on the arrest, given the suspects use of the forged Turkish travel documents.
A diplomatic source -- who was not named according to Turkish Foreign Ministry protocol -- said that after first trying diplomatic channels but receiving no response, they had sought the help of international criminal police organization Interpol in reaching Thai authorities.
The shrine where the bombing took place is extremely popular with tourists, especially Chinese.
Media have speculated on a connection between the bombing at a shrine -- popular with tourists, especially Chinese -- and Thailand sending 109 ethnic Uighur to China, from a group of around 350 who were being held in Thai immigration centers.
Around 180 had earlier been sent to Turkey, which welcomes Uighur as its own as they are among a number of Turkic tribes that inhabit a region many Turks call East Turkestan and consider to be part of Central Asia, not China.
Meanwhile, the Thai junta has come under criticism after showing a picture of a "suicide bomber vest" that its spokesman, Colonel Winthai Suwaree, the said had been found at the suspect’s apartment.
After the televised briefing Saturday evening, some journalists reported the picture was actually from a March 2013 post on a U.S.-based blog dealing with security issues, leading to Suwaree then saying the vest had indeed not been found at the apartment.
He also warned Internet users not to share the “suicide vest” picture on social networks, writing on his twitter account: “we would like to ask people who published that picture to stop their actions because it might bring concern to society and it could be in breach of computer legislation.”
Both the investigation into the bombing and the junta’s attitude have been heavily criticized by local and international journalists, with Thai authorities regularly contradicting each other and offering a wide array of hypotheses from domestic politics to organized crime.
