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            Thai Police Find Bomb Making Materials in 2nd Apartment

   by VOA News

   Police investigating the deadly bombing at a Bangkok shrine say they
   have found bomb-making materials in a raid of a yet another apartment.

   National police chief Prawuth Thavornsiri said Monday urea fertilizer,
   gunpowder and digital clocks were among the items found in an apartment
   in Bangkok's Min Buri district.

   "These are bomb-making materials," Prawuth said.  "Nobody would keep
   urea fertilizer and gunpowder unless they wanted to make a bomb."

   No arrests have been made in the latest discovery.

   On Saturday, police arrested a suspect in a neighborhood close to Min
   Buri in connection with the worst single mass casualty attack in
   Thailand, killing 20 people two weeks ago. Bomb-making equipment was
   also found during that arrest.

   Immediately after the suspect's arrest, Bangkok police said the man was
   Turkish, but then backtracked when it was pointed out the picture they
   released of his passport was a mistake-riddled forgery.

   The Turkish embassy in Bangkok denied that the arrested suspect is a
   citizen of Turkey, Prawuth told reporters on Sunday.

   Conflicting statements

   Authorities also made conflicting statements Saturday and Sunday on
   whether they believed the man was the suspect caught on closed circuit
   television images leaving a package at the popular Hindu shrine in
   central Bangkok just prior to the explosion.

   Police initially told reporters that a tip from a landlord had led them
   to the suspect, whose apartment building was surrounded by more than
   100 police and soldiers on Saturday. Other officials later were quoted
   anonymously in the Thai media saying police analysis of mobile phone
   records had led them to the man.

   Two rooms in the apartment building the suspect was using were strewn
   with bomb-making ingredients, including urea fertilizer, TNT, C4 and
   sodium carbonate, according to a plain-clothes special branch officer
   quoted by Reuters.

   Bomb-making materials -- including fuses, pipes and ball bearings --
   found at the apartment Saturday, police earlier said, were similar to
   those used at the Erawan Hindu Shrine and were linked to a second
   bombing the following day which caused no injuries at the Sathorn Pier.

   Information from the suspect being held by military authorities
   suggested that the Maimuna Garden Home apartments were used by his
   associates, said Col. Kanchol Intraram, chief of the Min Buri police
   station.

   The Thai national police chief told reporters Saturday evening that the
   attacks were "not an international terrorist act."

   The motive by the main culprit was instead "taking personal revenge for
   his comrades," asserted Police General Somyot Pumpanmuang, without
   elaborating on how authorities had quickly reached that conclusion.

   Police Sunday described the suspect as part of a gang of people
   smugglers.

   "They are unsatisfied with police arresting illegal entrants," Prawuth
   told Thailand's Channel 3.

   The head of the Thai military junta, prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha,
   has cautioned against concluding that the shrine bombing was linked to
   international terrorism or mentioning any possible connection to
   Turkey.
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References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/thai-police-find-bomb-making-materials-in-2nd-apartment/2938981.html