Shinawatras’ party denies role in Thailand blasts
The bombs on Thursday and Friday went off in the upscale resort of Hua Hin and beach destinations in the south including Phuket, Phang Nga and Surat Thani
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.
The blasts on Thursday and Friday in five of southern Thailand’s internationally known resorts came days after Thais voted to accept a military-backed constitution that paves the way for an election at the end of 2017.
This is slander and defamation. Anyone who is a former prime minister is worried about the country and would not do such evil
Analysts say suspicion would inevitably on fall on enemies of the ruling junta beaten in the referendum or insurgents from Muslim-majority provinces in the south of the mostly Buddhist country.
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.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the wave of bombings, which sent shudders through the tourism industry, one of the few bright spots in Thailand’s sluggish economy.
For more than a decade Thailand has been divided between populist political forces led by Thaksin, who was toppled in a 2006 coup, and the royalist and military establishment, which accuses him of corruption.
