Thai police seek Turkish cooperation on blast mastermind

Thai police today said it will seek Turkish cooperation over reports that the alleged mastermind of Thailand's worst terror attack at a temple here had fled to Turkey via India.
Police spokesman Lt-General Prawut Thavornsiri said intelligence reports indicated that Abu Dustar Abdulrahman, or "Izan", a Chinese national, had changed his itinerary to Istanbul instead of going to China.
Izan fled to Bangladesh a day before the August 17 blast in Bangkok on his way to Turkey. An earlier report said that Izan had left Bangkok on August 16 for Dhaka where he stayed for about two weeks.
Izan is accused of masterminding Thailand's worst ever terror attack at the Erawan Shrine that killed 20 people and injured over 100 others, and another blast at Sathorn Pier a day later.

A senior Bangladeshi police officer had said that Izan boarded a flight to China on August 30.
However, Prawut said yesterday that the suspect had left Dhaka for New Delhi before heading for Abu Dhabi and then to Turkey. He said the suspect landed in Istanbul on August 31.

"He changed the route to cover up his movements. So we will contact the Turkish Embassy in Bangkok about the reports," he said.
Meanwhile, police are waiting for Malaysia to confirm officially whether its arrest of three suspects including a Pakistani and two Malaysians has any link to the two blasts.

"To date, we only know that these suspects are part of a human smuggling gang and that the bombers might have sneaked into Thailand with the help of the gang," Prawut said.
He said Thai authorities would have to wait until investigations by Malaysian police concluded.
Thailand has so far detained two suspects in connection with the blasts and issued arrest warrants for 12 others.