Thailand arrests main suspect

Bangkok, September 1

In a breakthrough, Thailand’s Prime Minister announced today that a second foreign national believed to be the main suspect in the country’s worst bombing at a Brahma temple here that claimed 20 lives has been arrested near the Cambodian border.

Thai Premier General Prayut Chan-o-cha said the male suspect was apprehended while trying to cross the border at Ban Pa Rai in Thailand’s Aranyaprathet district in Sa Kaeo province, nearly two weeks after the attack.

“It’s true. He has been arrested at Sa Kaeo checkpoint,” Prayut said, adding, “We are interrogating him. He is a main suspect and a foreigner.” The “important” suspect was arrested early this morning. The suspect was “probably running away”, Prayut said.

According to media reports, the man arrested is the one seen in CCTV footage on August 17 wearing a yellow shirt and leaving a backpack reportedly containing the bomb behind at the temple, a popular tourist attraction. However, this could not be officially confirmed.

Prayut said it would be great if the suspect is the man they are seeking. “So we will know who they are, where they came from, who’s behind this.” “Don’t say just yet it’s about this and that. It could affect international affairs,” he said. “We have to do a lot of tests, fingerprints. If he is the guy, he is the guy.”

Prayut described the man arrested as a piece in a jigsaw puzzle that would connect various parts of the case in which a bomb exploded harmlessly in a river next to a busy pier the day after the temple blast. The Premier did not disclose the nationality of the man.

Taskforce Major General Srisak Poonprasit was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying the suspect was spotted by a joint patrol unit of troops and police trying to sneak across the border in Ban Dong Ngu village in Tambon Parai of Aranyaprathet district to Cambodia. — PTI