BANGKOK: Thai authorities say they have tracked a key suspect in last month's Bangkok bombing to Turkey but doubt he was the mastermind of the unprecedented attack.
Investigators had gathered a huge amount of evidence on a transnational people-smuggling network involving more than a dozen suspects since a bomb tore through tourists and Thais at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok on August 17, killing 20 people and injuring more than 120.
They say they have established links between the network and both Turkey and China's Uighur Muslims, but the motive behind the attack remains unclear.
Uighurs from China's western Xinjiang region have close ties to Turkey where many nationalists regard them as part of a broad family of ethnic Turks spread across Eurasia.
Thai police said a man they believed helped organise the bombing flew out of Bangkok on August 16 on a Chinese passport with the name Abu Dustar Abdulrahman.
He is known as Ishan or Izan.
Police said the man flew to Bangladesh where he stayed for two weeks before flying to Turkey via New Delhi and Abu Dhabi.
However, Reuters and Associated Press quote Turkish government officials as saying there is no record of the man entering Turkey.
"At this point, we're working very hard to understand what the Thai government is trying to accomplish by desperately trying to associate Turkey with the attack," Reuters quote an official as saying.
An arrest warrant for the so-called "Mr Ishan" has been issued through Interpol.
Thai police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters police were unconvinced the man was the mastermind of the attack because the "money trail" did not stop with him.
In another breakthrough, police in Malaysia have arrested two Malaysians and a Pakistani on suspicion of smuggling suspects involved in the bombing from Thailand to Malaysia.
Malaysian police confirmed the arrests, which were made several days ago, but did not make the details public.
"We are working together with our Thai counterparts. Let us investigate the matter first," Malaysia's inspector-general of police, Khalid Abu Bakar, said.
Police have so far arrested two suspects over the bombing.
Adem Karadag, 28, was arrested on August 29 in a Bangkok apartment where bomb-making material was found.
Yusufu Mieraili, 25, was detained near the Cambodian border on September 1. Their nationalities remain unclear.
Amid confusing and contradictory statements on the investigation, police now said they suspected the bombing was an act of retaliation by a human-trafficking network after a recent crackdown on people smuggling.
Thailand has been a central transit point for regional people smuggling, including Uighurs wanting to reach Turkey.
Another theory was that the attack was revenge for Thailand's military government deporting 109 Uighurs to China in July, which infuriated the Uighur movement.
Bangkok-based security analyst Anthony Davis said he suspected the bombing involved both a people-smuggling network and an overseas group that brought contacts and experience needed to carry it out.
Investigators had gathered a huge amount of evidence on a transnational people-smuggling network involving more than a dozen suspects since a bomb tore through tourists and Thais at the Erawan Shrine in central Bangkok on August 17, killing 20 people and injuring more than 120.
They say they have established links between the network and both Turkey and China's Uighur Muslims, but the motive behind the attack remains unclear.
Uighurs from China's western Xinjiang region have close ties to Turkey where many nationalists regard them as part of a broad family of ethnic Turks spread across Eurasia.
Thai police said a man they believed helped organise the bombing flew out of Bangkok on August 16 on a Chinese passport with the name Abu Dustar Abdulrahman.
He is known as Ishan or Izan.
Police said the man flew to Bangladesh where he stayed for two weeks before flying to Turkey via New Delhi and Abu Dhabi.
However, Reuters and Associated Press quote Turkish government officials as saying there is no record of the man entering Turkey.
"At this point, we're working very hard to understand what the Thai government is trying to accomplish by desperately trying to associate Turkey with the attack," Reuters quote an official as saying.
An arrest warrant for the so-called "Mr Ishan" has been issued through Interpol.
Thai police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters police were unconvinced the man was the mastermind of the attack because the "money trail" did not stop with him.
In another breakthrough, police in Malaysia have arrested two Malaysians and a Pakistani on suspicion of smuggling suspects involved in the bombing from Thailand to Malaysia.
Malaysian police confirmed the arrests, which were made several days ago, but did not make the details public.
"We are working together with our Thai counterparts. Let us investigate the matter first," Malaysia's inspector-general of police, Khalid Abu Bakar, said.
Police have so far arrested two suspects over the bombing.
Adem Karadag, 28, was arrested on August 29 in a Bangkok apartment where bomb-making material was found.
Yusufu Mieraili, 25, was detained near the Cambodian border on September 1. Their nationalities remain unclear.
Amid confusing and contradictory statements on the investigation, police now said they suspected the bombing was an act of retaliation by a human-trafficking network after a recent crackdown on people smuggling.
Thailand has been a central transit point for regional people smuggling, including Uighurs wanting to reach Turkey.
Another theory was that the attack was revenge for Thailand's military government deporting 109 Uighurs to China in July, which infuriated the Uighur movement.
Bangkok-based security analyst Anthony Davis said he suspected the bombing involved both a people-smuggling network and an overseas group that brought contacts and experience needed to carry it out.
