Thai police have sought help from Bangladesh through Interpol to help locate the mastermind behind the fatal bomb blast after investigations indicated that he might have fled to this South Asian country, Nation reports.
Designated police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda said the information about the possible whereabouts of Abu Dustar Abdulrahman or Izan, a Chinese national, had been confirmed through evidence and testimony from witnesses.
“We have already asked Interpol to inform Bangladesh about the latest development concerning the mastermind behind the bomb blast at the Erawan Shrine,” said Chakthip who will become police chief next month.
He said without elaborating that police were tracing money channelled from foreign countries to see whether it was used in funding the attacks.
Referring to the yellow-shirt man who is suspected of being the bomber, he said that police are confident that he would be arrested based on the information and evidence they have in hand.
Suspect re-enacts bomb handover
A suspect told Bangkok police he passed the bomb that struck the city centre last month to another man before the attack, police said Wednesday, dpa reports.
Mieraili Yusufu, 25, said he handed over the bag at a train station hours before the blast, National Police Spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters.
The explosion killed 20 people and injured more than 100.
Yusufu, arrested on the Cambodian border, earlier confessed to possessing ball bearings, fuses, black powder and timers found in an apartment in Bangkok.
Police Wednesday took him and other suspects to the train station to re-enact the handover – re-enactments are a common part of Thai criminal proceedings.
Security analysts said the terrorist attack did not fit the pattern of local and regional groups.
Some have speculated that the most likely culprits were Turkish far-right groups unhappy with Thailand’s deportation of Uighur refugees to China in July.
Uighurs are a Muslim ethnic minority in north-western China who speak a language related to Turkish.
Yusufu was carrying a Chinese passport at the time of his arrest. The passport indicates that Yusufu is from XinJian in north-western China, part of the Uighur homeland.