Bangkok: Two Indians have been taken into custody for questioning by Thai police after they were seen on CCTVs talking to a foreign suspect wanted in Thailand’s deadliest bombing at a Brahma temple in Bangkok, a media report said on Monday. The two Indians have been taken to a military camp for questioning, Nation quoted police as saying.
“Nothing is really known so far about the Indians and it is not clear what the questioning is about,” sources told PTI.
The two Indians, whose names were withheld, were taken away for questioning after Assistant Police Commissioner General Prawut Thawornsiri led 20 police and troops to search the Maimuna Garden Home apartment in Minburi at 9 pm on Sunday night. The two Indians were staying in the room next to the one where police found bomb making materials, Nation said. A foreigner who lived at the room and a Thai woman who rented the room for him are now wanted in the case.
Thai police is closely combing areas in search of people behind the August 17 bomb blast at the popular Erawan Brahma Shrine which killed 20 people and injured more than 100 others. A combined force of police and army officers on Sunday raided several apartment buildings and rented houses in Min Buri district.
Coloner Wattana Yichin, deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police overseeing Min Buri police station, said the raid was part of crime suppression measures as many foreigners rent apartments and houses in the area.
Police so far have issued arrest warrants for ten suspects in connection with the case. Two foreign suspects have been arrested. One of them was carrying a Chinese passport.
Meanwhile, a suspect who was arrested near the Cambodia border identified as Yusufu Meralli, told military interrogators he assembled the bomb for the actual bomber, who is yet to be nabbed. The first man arrested, Adem Karadak, also known as Bilal Mohammed, has been shifted from military custody to prison.
Meralli admitted he assembled the bomb before handing it to a yellow-shirted suspect who was seen on CCTV at the shrine leaving behind a backpack which would have had the explosive device. Mieraili had told the military that he was asked to assemble the bomb, he did not elaborate on who told him to make the explosive, Bangkok Post quoted police sources as saying.
Mieraili claimed he had never met the yellow-shirted suspect before. Mieraili was carrying a Chinese passport which mentioned his place of birth as China’s western region of Xinjiang, but it is not known if it was forged.
