Bangkok blast: Malaysia arrests three suspects, mastermind still on the run

Malaysia has announced that three suspects of the August bomb blast at Erawan Shrine in Bangkok were arrested on Monday.

Police chief Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed that among the three suspects, two - one man and one woman - were Malaysians, while the third suspect was a Pakistani. “We believe the suspects can help in the investigation ... our arrest was made to assist the Thai police in the Thai bombing investigation,” he said via aljazeera.com. Malaysian and Thai police officials were working in close co-operation, he added.

Thai police officials said that the key suspect of the blast has last been tracked in flights to Turkey. However, none of the suspects have admitted their involvement in the Bangkok explosion, which injured 120 people and killed 20 people, including 14 foreigners, seven of whom were from Hong Kong and mainland China.

Earlier, the police believed that the mastermind of the Bangkok blast, Abu Dustar Abdulrahman, a.k.a. Izan, has planned to reach China via Bangladesh on the eve of the explosion, using a Chinese passport. But on Friday, Thai police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri claimed that based on the information gathered by the Thai authorities and Bangladeshi officials, Izan left Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka on Aug. 30 and was being tracked in New Delhi and then Abu Dhabi on his way to Istanbul.

Thai police confirmed that an arrest warrant had been issued against Izan and the document along with his photograph have been circulated with Interpol. “We have evidence from the Bangladeshi Embassy that Izan went to Abu Dhabi and then to Turkey,” Thavornsiri said via Reuters UK.

Thai police issued a photograph of the Bangkok blast mastermind on Sunday and said that he might belong to the Uighur ethnic group in China, but later requested the media not to reveal this speculation to the public.

Police investigation reports suggested that the blast was related to mere criminal gangs, but the speculation of Izan belonging to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority in western China, points towards a more specific motive behind the attack.

Thailand had sent 109 Uighurs back to China forcefully in July, and the anger among the ethnic community members could be the main reason behind the Bangkok explosion in August.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.