Warrant for Phuket bombs suspect linked to insurgency

An arrest warrant has been issued for a key suspect in two foiled bombings in Phuket last week, a man who also has links to the southern insurgency, a deputy national police chief said on Tuesday.

Pol Gen Sriwara Rangsipramanakul said the military court of the 41st Army Circle in Nakhon Si Thammarat had approved the warrant after tests showed DNA samples collected at the bomb scenes clearly matched the DNA of a suspect involved in attacks around Tak Bai in Narathiwat since 2004. Details of the suspect were withheld because he was still being tracked down.

Pol Gen Sriwara said the man was a key suspect and could provide  links to others in the network behind the attacks last week. According to immigration records, the suspect was still in Thailand. 

Two unexploded low-pressure time bombs built to be detonated by mobile phones were found in Patong sub-district in Kathu district of Phuket on the evening of Aug 10. The devices were found at a garment stall in Paradise Market and a clothing shop in the China Town Market. They were destroyed before they were detonated by the bombers.

Pol Gen Sriwara, who heads an investigation into the 13 bomb and arson attacks in central and southern provinces last week, was speaking before he departed for Surat Thani in the South from the Police Aviation Division in Don Muang, Bangkok, to follow up the case.   

He said investigators were making progress. He had insisted they all be very discreet and thorough,  to ensure those masterminding the attacks were brought to justice. 

Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said on Monday the attacks might have involved southern insurgents hired to carry out the bombings, but were not an extension of the separatist war in the southernmost border provinces.