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The seaside resort town of Hua Hin was hit by fresh blasts on Friday (Aug 12), hoursafter explosionskilled one and injured more than 20, asPhuket and Surat Thani were also rockedby explosions, official said.
Thailand’s junta chief on Friday called thebombings an attempt to trigger unrest in a country blighted by a decade-long political crisis.
“The bombs are an attempt to create chaos and confusion,” junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha told reporters in Bangkok.
Four people have been killed in the blasts – two in Hua Hin, one in the island gateway town of Surat Thani, and one in southern Trang, with many others injured. There were also blasts on the tourist island of Phuket.
“Twin bombs at the clock tower killed one and injured three,” said Hua Hin district chief Sutthipong Klai-udom, referring to the two latestblasts in the town Friday that followed twin bombings there the night before.
The two earlier bombs were hidden in potted plants and went off within 30 minutes of each other in the bar district of the popular beach town.
There were two explosionson the tourist island of Phuket on Friday along with one in the island gateway town of Surat Thani, and one in southern Trang on Thursday, officials told AFP.
InSurat Thani, provincial governor Wongsiri Promchana said the bomb, hidden in a flower bed, exploded in front of the marine police offices, killing a municipal worker and injuring another man.
"I think it's related to the blasts in Hua Hin," Wongsiri told AFP, referring to the overnight attack in the town that lies further north.
While small bombings are common in the kingdom during periods of heightened political tension, there have been few such incidents in the past year and it is rare for tourists to be targeted.
Hua Hin is home to the summer palace ofThailand’s revered royal family and the blast came on the eve of Queen Sirikit’s 84th birthday and just ahead of the first anniversary of a Bangkok shrine bombing that killed 20.
Injured people receive first aid after a bomb exploded on Aug 11, 2016, in Trang, Thailand.PHOTO: REUTERS
Authorities were searching for leads on the attackers and a motive behind the latest blasts.
Hua Hin’s district chiefSutthipong told AFP that the bombs on Thursday evening were detonated by mobile phone.
According to staff at local hospitals, German, Italian, Dutch and Austrian nationals were among the wounded.
“It was very shocking. There was a loud noise and police were running everywhere, it was terrible,” said Michael Edwards, an Australian tourist staying in a guest house close to where the second bomb detonated.
“I was just surprised that it happened here... now I’m thinking if it’s worth staying,” he told AFP.
Hua Hin is an upscale resort town about 200km south of Bangkok, popular with both local and foreign tourists. It is also home to a palace for years favoured byThailand’s revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch.
The 88-year-old is currently hospitalised in Bangkok for a myriad of health complications, a pressing source of anxiety for many Thais and a key factor in the kingdom’s past decade of political turmoil.
Thailand’s reputation as the “Land of Smiles” has suffered in recent years from crimes against foreigners and political unrest. But tourists continue to flock to its white, sandy beaches and Buddhist temples.
The kingdom is expecting a record 32 million visitors in 2016, with the tourism industry a bright spot in an otherwise lacklustre economy.
The latest blasts came just days before the first anniversary of the last major attack on tourists inThailand – an Aug 17 bomb attack at the famous Erawan shrine in Bangkok that killed 20 people, mostly ethnic Chinese tourists including a Singaporean woman.
Two Uighur men from western China have been accused of the attack and are due to go on trial later this month. Both deny any involvement in the bombing and mystery continues to swirl around the case, with authorities failing to catch a number of other suspects or offer a thorough explanation for a motive.
Thailand’s military junta, which seized power in 2014 after a decade of at times violent political unrest, has touted an increase in stability in the kingdom as a major accomplishment of its rule.
Yet the generals have failed to quell a long-running Islamic insurgency inThailand’s three southernmost provinces – a region far from Bangkok or Hua Hin.The conflict is largely contained to the far south but violence has occasionally spilled into other areas.
Zachary Abuza, an expert on militants in Southeast Asia, said it would be “very unusual” for the insurgents to target Hua Hin.
"If southern rebels were behind the recent blasts, “it is almost definitely a small cell operating on their own initiative”, he told AFP.
(THE STRAITS TIMES)
