Thai officials said on Saturday they were looking for the culprits behind a string of coordinated bombings on Thursday night and Friday morning across five southern provinces. Some 30 people, including foreign tourists, were also injured in the attacks.
No one has claimed the bombings, but the police ruled out the possibility of an international terrorist group behind the attacks. The authorities also downplayed possible links to an insurgency in Thailand’s southern border region, Deutsche Welle reported.
“There have been no arrests yet,” Piyapan Pingmuang, a deputy police spokesman, told AFP.
“It is just local sabotage that is restricted to limited areas and provinces,” Pingmuang told reporters on Friday in Bangkok, adding that the police had yet to identify a motive.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha called for unity in a televised address to the nation late on Friday.
“Thais must help each other to restore safety and security to the nation,” Prayut said. “We must join together to eliminate evil from our society.”
The Thai political party whose governments have been overthrown by the country’s ruling generals denied on Saturday having any role in the bomb attacks on popular tourist destinations that killed four people and wounded dozens.
Fears that followers of former prime ministers Thaksin Shinawatra and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, including an opposition movement sympathetic to the Shinawatras known as the “red shirts”, could be blamed prompted a senior figure in their Puea Thai Party to issue a sharp denial.
“People, through social media, are sending messages saying Thaksin Shinawatra is behind these events,” Noppadon Pattama, a former foreign minister, said.
“This is slander and defamation. Anyone who is a former prime minister is worried about the country and would not do such evil,” said Noppadon, who served in both Thaksin and Yingluk’s cabinets.
