Police sharpen security at foreign residences

BANGKOK, February 21 (TNA) - Security measures have been tightened at rental residences open to foreigners across Thailand, particularly Middle Eastern nationals, following last Tuesday’s bomb blasts in Bangkok. Chief of Metropolitan Police Division Police Lieutenant General Winai Thongsong has ordered the beefed-up security measures, as assigned by Deputy Prime Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yoobumroong, who oversees national security. The metropolitan police chief told journalists that the deputy premier has also instructed all security units to sharpen their intelligence to prevent any repeated untoward incident in Thailand staged by foreigners; while police in all areas are told to communicate with owners or operators of guesthouses and condominiums for names of their foreign customers in order to monitor their behaviors, especially Middle Eastern nationals staying at Bangkok’s Nana and Thong Lor areas. The metropolitan police chief said that he has also sought cooperation with tourism police to help keep a close watch on tourist destinations famous among foreigners, including Chiang Mai, Pattaya and Phuket, and with the immigration police to round-up the number of Middle Eastern nationals in Thailand. Touching on last Tuesday’s bombing incidents, Police Lieutenant General Winai acknowledged that immigration police have had the name of the fifth suspect whose arrest warrant has been approved by the court, but initial intelligence indicated that he left Thailand just after the February 14 bomb blasts in Bangkok and was believed to have returned to Iran, where Thailand has no extradition agreement. The metropolitan police chief said that a house rented by a group of Iranian suspects on Sukhumvit 71 road was not the place for bomb making and police are finding the venue they used for making explosives. According to the metropolitan police chief, six suspects have been initially detected to have involved in February 14 bomb blasts, with the fifth and the sixth, both are men, having left Thailand and police are finding which group was responsible for last Tuesday's bombing incidents in the capital. (TNA)