Thai police say Bangkok shrine bombing has been solved, give themselves cash reward money

Thai police at a news conference Monday.

(Image credit: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 29 September 2015

During a news conference on Monday, Thai police said they have a motive for the deadly bombing at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok in August: Human trafficking.

Police Chief Somyot Pumpanmuang said authorities had "destroyed" a human trafficking network, and the bombing was revenge for that — not for Thailand sending Muslim Uighur people back to China in July, Reuters reports. For the second time in a month, Somyot showed off thick bundles of money totaling 3 million bhat, or $83,000, that he said is a reward for police investigators.

Authorities said Friday that a man arrested in August, referred to as both Bilal Mohammed and Adem Karadag, was the man spotted in surveillance footage from the shrine wearing a yellow shirt, and that he has confessed to his role in the bombing. Another man was arrested used a cell phone to trigger the bomb, police say. The investigation has been inconsistent, though: Previously, authorities said it was unlikely that either one of the men was the bomber, Reuters reports.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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