Police believe Abudureheman Abususataer, the suspected mastermind behind last month’s Erawan shrine bombing, led a transnational network trafficking Chinese Uighurs that was disrupted by Thailand’s people-smuggling crackdown.
National police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang said Tuesday that Turkey denied Mr Abususataer, better known as "Ishan", had flown from Dhaka (in Bangladesh) to Istanbul (in Turkey) via New Delhi and Abu Dhabi Aug 30, as asserted by a joint investigative team of Thai police and the Bangladeshi embassy in Bangkok.
The Aug 17 blast at the Ratchaprasong intersection shrine and the failed bombing of the Sathorn pier the following day are connected to the July 9 attack on the Thai consulate-general in Istanbul, he said. Both stem from Turkish anger over Thailand's forced repatriation of 109 Uighur Muslims to China in July, Pol Gen Somyot added.
Thailand disrupted the network's movement of the migrants when it captured them and placed them in a detention camp in southern Thailand last year before deporting them blindfolded and under armed guard, Pol Gen Somyot said.
The country then launched a major crackdown on human traffickers following the discovery of mass Rohingya Muslim and Bangladeshi graves on the Malaysian border May 1.
"Put simply, we destroyed their business," the police chief told his daily media briefing.