One Week after the Bangkok Bombing, What do We Know?
from Asia Unbound

One Week after the Bangkok Bombing, What do We Know?

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erawan-shrine

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A week after the bombing at central Bangkok’s Erawan Shrine that killed twenty people, wounded at least 125 more, and set off a massive manhunt for a suspect identified in CCTV video, a man who apparently left a backpack at the shrine shortly before the explosion, no one has been arrested. In fact, amidst a constant swirl of rumors about possible leads, the Thai authorities appear no closer to solving the case. No one has taken credit for the attack, and the police have neither identified the suspect definitively nor released any more information about him or any apparent accomplices.

Many Thais fear that the culprits will never be found; previous, smaller bombings in Bangkok and other sites in southern Thailand often have come and gone with no arrests and muddled forensic investigations. Already, the Thai authorities have released multiple conflicting statements about the bombing, and the potential suspects. And so far, none of the major theories behind the bombing have been ruled out---that it was done by insurgents fighting for a separate homeland in the Thai deep south, that it was done by an international terrorist group, that it was committed by military splinter groups, that it was done by groups opposed to the junta’s rule, or that it was done by Uighur militants infuriated by Thailand’s repatriation of Uighurs to China.

To read more about the investigation into the bombings and my analysis of how the investigation is being conducted, read my new piece for The National.

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