Thailand arrests 'main suspect' in Bangkok blast investigation The male suspect was arrested east of Bangkok on the border with Cambodia, Prayuth Chan-ocha, the prime minister says Royal Thai Army soldiers lead the Erawan Shrine bombing suspect after they arrested him in Sa Kaeo district, near the Thai-Cambodian border Royal Thai Army soldiers lead the Erawan Shrine bombing suspect after they arrested him in Sa Kaeo district. A key suspect in the Bangkok shrine bombing who resembles the man seen leaving a backpack at the blast site was captured at Thailand's border with Cambodia. The detained man was reported by some Thai media outlets to be carrying a passport for a Chinese citizen with an apparently Islamic name from the restive western province of Xinjiang, where there is a large Muslim Uighur population. Thai police have taken the suspect to Bangkok for interrogation but officials denied media reports that he was captured inside Cambodia and handed over to Thailand. The police also issued new arrest warrants for three suspects believed to be Turkish amid growing speculation that Thailand’s worst terrorist atrocity was conducted by a nexus of Turks and their fellow ethnic Turkic Uighurs. Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the prime minister, described the man as a "main suspect" in the deadly Bangkok bombing that claimed the lives of 20 people – six Thais and 14 ethnic Chinese tourists from other Asian countries. "It would be great if he were (the bomber). Then we will know who they are, where they came from, who's behind this," said Gen Prayuth, noting that the suspect resembled a yellow-shirted man seen in a surveillance video apparently planting the bomb. Experts investigating the Erawan shrine at the site of the deadly blast in central Bangkok, Thailand Experts investigating the Erawan shrine at the site of the deadly blast in central Bangkok, Thailand Photo: REUTERS Prawut Thavornsiri, the national police spokesman, said that investigators believed the suspect was "an important person in the network" behind the bombing. He also described him as appearing "similar" to the prime suspect captured on security camera footage. There have been no claims of responsibility for the August 17 atrocity or a second aborted bomb attack when a similar device was abandoned in a canal shortly afterwards and exploded with no casualties the next day. Immediate suspicion focused on Thailand’s domestic turmoil, a Muslim insurgency in the south and international Islamic terror groups. But the recent breakthroughs have now thrown attention on a possible link-up between Turkish-Uighur militants, notably a radical ultra-nationalist Turkish terror faction called the Grey Wolves, and human trafficking crime gangs. Thailand deported more than 100 Uighur men to China in July, despite widespread protests that they faced persecution there, and sent their wives and children to Turkey. The expulsions prompted violent anti-Thai protests in Turkey led by the Grey Wolves. Flames burn after the explosion in Bangkok Flames burn after the explosion in Bangkok Photo: AP The Erawan shrine is known to be popular with Chinese visitors as well as Thais. “It is important the security services recognise squarely that the Erawan atrocity was the not the fumbling revenge of a locally-based criminal gang facing a police "crackdown", but rather a well-planned and technically sophisticated international terrorist operation,” said Tony Davis, a respected Bangkok-based security analyst who first publicised the possible Grey Wolves connection. He said that the terror attack appeared to be a "joint venture" operation in which foreign-based "ideological" extremists teamed up with criminal gangs with a Bangkok network. Thai police have recently raided two Bangkok apartments containing troves of bomb-making paraphernalia – an indication that the network planned further attacks in the city. In the first raid, they detained a suspect who had about 200 fake Turkish passports. Bangkok is known to be a hub for gangs smuggling Uighurs from China via Thailand and Malaysia to Turkey with counterfeit paperwork. In another Turkish connection, the Thai Muslim woman renting the second apartment where explosive material was recovered was said be her family to be married to a Turk and to have moved to her husband’s homeland two months ago.