Thai police have issued a photograph of Ishan, a suspect in the Bangkok temple bombing – at first calling him a member of the Uighur ethnic group but then withdrawing the description, underlining their sometimes confusing and contradictory statements in the case.
National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told Agence France-Presse that Abu Dustar Abdulrahman, or Ishan, was a Uighur according to his passport and a caption released with a photo of the moustached and short-haired suspect identified him as of “Uighur” ethnicity and “Chinese” nationality.
Later on Saturday Prawut said he wanted to “correct” his earlier comment, without explaining why or denying the man was of Uighur ethnicity, saying only the suspect was Chinese. “I cannot confirm his whereabouts,” the spokesman added.
Shortly afterwards police sent reporters another photo of the suspect – this time removing mention of his ethnicity and requesting media “drop the word Uighur”.
A warrant had been issued for Abdulrahman, police said.
Prawut said Ishan, who left Thailand a day before the blast, was wanted on the charge of “jointly possessing illegal military supplies” and belonged to the criminal network that police believe is responsible but was “not the mastermind”.
This appeared to contradict a statement, also released on Saturday, by Thai immigration police that said: “According to security agencies, Ishan is the one who plotted, ordered, and funded the attack.”
The attack killed 20 people, the majority ethnic Chinese visitors, at a religious shrine in the capital’s downtown district on 17 August.
Analysts have increasingly pointed towards militants from China’s mostly Muslim Uighur minority – or their supporters – in revenge for Thailand’s forced deportation of 109 Uighur refugees to an uncertain future in China in July.
Up until Saturday Thai police had avoided attempts to directly connect the blast with the kingdom’s major ally China or the Uighurs.
Thai authorities are already holding in custody two foreign men, whose nationalities remain unconfirmed, over the attack. Ishan, who police say is 27 years old, is among another 11 suspects wanted by police.
One of the detained suspects, Yusufu Mieraili, was arrested last month with a Chinese passport registering his birthplace as Xinjiang. But police did not confirm his ethnicity or nationality nor that of the other detained suspect, Adem Karadag, who was arrested at a Bangkok flat allegedly in possession of bomb-making materials and fake Turkish passports.
With Agence France-Presse
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