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Thai army detains 15 over last week's bombings in tourist towns

Thursday, 18 August 2016 3:06 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 18 August 2016 3:33 PM ]

Thai soldiers stand by after police disposed of a suspicious bag during a false bomb scare in the tourist-heavy Ratchaprasong district in Bangkok on August 18, 2016. (AFP photo)

Thailand’s military has detained at least 15 suspects following last week’s deadly bomb and arson attacks in tourist resort towns, the Southeast Asian country’s ruling junta says.

Colonel Burin Tongprapai, the junta's top legal adviser, told reporters on Thursday that 17 suspects had been initially detained, but two of them were later released. They are now being held at military barracks in the capital, Bangkok.

"Authorities have detained 17 suspects at the special 11th Army Circle barracks in Bangkok but we released two of them," media outlets quoted Tongprapai as saying.

Army officials are now looking to re-detain the two released suspects and the entire group is likely to be charged on Friday.

The deadly attacks came ahead of a national holiday marking the birthday of Queen Sirikit and just before the anniversary of a blast in downtown Bangkok last August that killed 20 people, mainly ethnic Chinese tourists, in the deadliest such attack to hit the country in recent years.

Four people were killed and dozens of others wounded in the last week attacks in Thailand's tourist resort towns.

Police and the military have ruled out international terrorism, saying the perpetrators were local saboteurs.

Police earlier said that they had no information about the motives behind the attacks or the identities of the bombers.

Thai rescue workers attend to an injured victim after a bomb exploded in Hua Hin on August 12, 2016. ©AFP

Thailand’s junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha has called the bombings an attempt to trigger unrest in the country blighted by a decade-long political crisis.

The developments also come days after voters in Thailand overwhelmingly approved a junta-proposed draft constitution in a referendum that would lay the foundation for a civilian government influenced by the military.

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