The Shinawatra-supporting red shirst are on the list of suspects. Source: Wikimedia
A series of bombing and arson attacks in southern Thailand that killed four people and wounded many more were organised by a single person, Thailand’s police said, after making an arrest.
Blasts on Thursday and Friday targeted some of the busiest Thai tourist resorts. A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for a 32-year-old man in connection with suspected arson at a Tesco Lotus store in Nakhon Si Thammarat, deputy police chief Pongsapat Pongcharoen told reporters Sunday. One person has been arrested so far and with many more questioned.
Incidents at various locations were “clearly” linked to one group, Pongsapat said, adding that the cause of the incidents had yet to be established. Four people died and 34 were injured in the explosions.
“These acts were undertaken by a group in many areas simultaneously, following orders from one individual,” Pongsapat told the media.
Bombs went off on Thursday and Friday in Hua Hin, Phuket, Phang Nga and Surat Thani.
The attacks came as holidaymakers flocked towards beaches at the start of a public holiday. Several attacks used incendiary devices that hit shops and markets in the southern provinces.
In Phang Nga, two bombs that the authorities believed failed to go off were found near a market that burned in an attack on Friday.
Supporters of the Thaksin family, which was ousted from power in 2006 and 2014, feared being blamed for the bombings.
At last Sunday’s referendum Thaksin’s northeast stronghold voted to against the constitution, which opponents of the junta said would bolster the military’s power and increase divisions.
Voters in three mostly Muslim southern provinces, where separatist militants have been fighting the military for than a decade, also voted against the constitution on August 7.
Pongsapat said DNA samples collected at the blast sites were being compared with data from the southern Muslim provinces.
