Bomb in Bangkok shrine kills 20 including tourists
Bangkok : Thailand’s junta leader said Tuesday a suspect had been identified in the bombing of a packed Bangkok religious shrine, condemning the blast that killed at least 20 people as the “worst ever attack” on the kingdom.
The attack occurred on Monday ( Aug. 17, 2015 ) in one of the Thai capital’s most popular tourism hubs, ripping through a crowd of worshippers at the Hindu shrine close to five-star hotels and upscale shopping malls.
Chinese, Hong Kong, Singaporean, Indonesian and Malaysian citizens were among the 20 people killed, police said.
More than 100 other people were injured as the blast left body parts strewn across crushed pavement, alongside shattered windows and incinerated motorcycles.
Bangkok has endured more than a decade of deadly political violence, with the junta ruling the nation since May last year after toppling the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
The Red Shirts are a grassroots network of rural and urban poor that are loyal to Yingluck and her self-exiled brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist politician who was a previous prime minister.
Muslim rebels from the country’s far south have also waged a separatist insurgency for more than a decade that has claimed thousands of lives, mostly civilians.
Junta leaders said the bomb was aimed at damaging the country’s tourist industry, which is a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy economy, and tarnishing the junta’s reputation.
“(The attackers) had the clear target of destroying our economy and tourism…. and discrediting the government,” Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon told reporters.
Built in 1956 the Erawan is an enormously popular shrine to the Hindu god Brahma but is visited by thousands of Buddhist devotees every day.
Source AFP
Aug. 18, 2015
