[LINK] "Thai bomb revenge for trafficking crackdown, police say"

[rfmcdonald]

This Al Jazeera report bodes ill, I'd say.

The perpetrators of last month's deadly Bangkok bombing were a network that trafficked Uighur Muslims and launched the attack in anger at Thailand's crackdown on the trade, police said on Tuesday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the Aug. 17 bombing at the Erawan Shrine that killed 20 people, an attack police chief Somyot Pumpanmuang ruled out as revenge for Thailand's forced repatriation in July of 109 Uighurs to China.

“It's about a human trafficking network that has been destroyed,” Somyot told reporters. “Deporting those 109 people, the Thai government did in accordance with international law. We also sent them to Turkey, not just China.”

Police have dampened speculation the bombers were members of international armed groups and have until now denied links to the Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim and say they flee China's western Xinjiang region due to persecution.

The Uighur issue is sensitive for the Thai government and any link between the bombing and their deportation at China's behest could expose it to criticism that its foreign policy may have resulted in the blast.