PM satisfied with progress of probe on bombing in Bangkok

BANGKOK, September 1 (TNA) - Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has expressed his satisfaction with progress on an official investigation of a bombing attack in central Bangkok last month. The prime minister told journalists that it is, however, too early to say what were the motives of the bombing attack at Ratchaprasong Intersection on August 17 and a void bombing plot at Sathon Pier near Silom business area in the capital on August 18. The prime minister called on apartment owners to, from now on, keep records of their tenants. The prime minister was referring to an arrest last Friday of a suspect at an apartment on the outskirts of Bangkok, in which police are certain that the man is linked with the incident at Sathorn Pier on August 18 although no casualties were reported because the bomb apparently missed its target and, instead, fell into the Chao Phraya River. The prime minister insisted police investigations on the two cases have made headway and they should be allowed to work so that the real motives of the bombings would be known because there were several groups involving in both incidents. Asked whether the arrested suspect was linked to human trafficking rings smuggling ethnic Uighurs from China to Thailand, the prime minister assessed that there is a possibility and his government will try to prevent such incidents from reoccurring to prevent Thailand from becoming a transit point of transnational human trafficking networks or a country where bombs are kept. Based on closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs) installed at the two bombing areas, the prime minister stressed that arrest warrants have been issued against two suspects, a Thai Muslim woman and a foreigner. The police, meanwhile, reported that the August 18 incident was believed to be linked with the deadly bombing attack at Ratchaprasong Intersection a day earlier, in which 20 people were killed and more than 120 others were wounded. The arrested suspect's nationality remains unknown, as he possessed several passports, but all of them were fake. (TNA)