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Thai bomb suspect ‘fled to Bangladesh’
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A MAN who Thai police believe was the mastermind behind last month’s deadly Bangkok bombing fled to Bangladesh on the day before the attack and traveled on a Chinese passport, officials said yesterday.
He has emerged as a key suspect in the August 17 bombing following the interrogation this week of one of two foreigners being held by police.
The foreigner questioned, identified as Yusufu Mierili, had been arrested on September 1 near the Thai-Cambodia border carrying a Chinese passport. He had confessed to playing a key role in the attack, police said. His passport indicated he was from China’s western region of Xinjiang. His DNA and fingerprints were found in two apartments that police had raided during their investigation, including on a container of gunpowder.
On Tuesday, police had taken Mierili back to the apartments and also to a chemical supply shop where he said he bought “four substances” used to make the bomb, police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said. He declined to say what the materials were or if Mierili is believed to have made the bomb himself. He said the shop owner remembered Mierili as a customer.
A second day of re-enactments continued yesterday, when police and armed commandoes led Mierili in handcuffs and body armor to Bangkok’s main train station and then to the site of the blast about 5 kilometers away.
Prawut described Mierili as “cooperative,” and during yesterday’s reenactment he could be seen pointing things out to police and at times laughing with them. Reporters were kept too far away to hear what prompted the laughter.
Mierili told police that on the day of the attack, he picked up a backpack from one of the apartments in the city’s Nong Chok district and then took a tuk-tuk taxi to Hua Lamphong train station, Prawut said.
“Yusufu said the backpack that he carried was heavy and it was a bomb,” Prawut said.
He told police that a man called “Izan” played a lead role and assigned responsibilities to others involved in the bomb plot during a meeting in the Thai capital.
“This man called Izan — and I don’t know if this is his real name — is a very important person in this network,” Thai deputy police chief Chakthip Chaijinda told reporters.
“I don’t know what his nationality is ... Let’s just say Izan is one of the foremost wanted individuals.”
Mierili said he received instructions on WhatsApp, a cellphone messaging application, telling him to deposit the backpack at a bench outside the station and wait for another person who would pick it up and leave him another backpack in return.
“This place is where he met with the yellow-shirt man to exchange backpacks,” Prawut told reporters. Mierili told police he “picked up the backpack that the yellow-shirted man left for him, and walked away.”
The yellow-shirted man is believed to be the bomber, and police say they think he fled the country. He was seen in surveillance video placing a black backpack at the shrine and leaving before the blast.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast at the Erawan Shrine. Twenty people were killed in the explosion, including seven Chinese tourists.
Chakthip said police would be coordinating with Bangladeshi counterparts where the key suspect traveled on August 16. An immigration official said the man had used a Chinese passport.
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