Eight persons, including four Uighurs from China's restive Xinjiang, have been arrested in Malaysia in connection with a major human trafficking network which allegedly helped a bomber in carrying out Thailand's worst attack at a temple, police said today.
The arrests were made here four days ago, Deputy Inspector-General of police Noor Rashid Ibrahim said.
"All eight are in their 30's and the four locals are human traffickers who smuggled foreigners into the country," he said during a press conference.
Four suspects were believed to be minority Uighur, who may have come from China's western Xinjiang region, he said.
While there is no evidence they were directly involved in the bombing they are being investigated to see if they had any role in other activities surrounding the blast.
"Right now, there is no concrete evidence to show that they are directly involved," Rashid said.
He said Thai police have been notified, and he hopes they can aid in identifying the men. Thailand will need to provide basic proof of their involvement in the bombing if it wants to extradite the suspects, he said.
"I have also informed the Thai authorities of the arrest of the four men and they said they will collaborate to trace several more suspects believed involved in the incident," Rashid said.
He said that the four suspects are being investigated in Malaysia before extradition to Thailand, bringing the number of suspects arrested to eight. Five Malaysians were among 20 people killed and 123 people hurt after a bomb exploded at Erawan Temple in Bangkok on August 17.
A Pakistani and two Malaysians suspected of being part of a human trafficking gang are already being interrogated by Malaysian police.
Malaysian police said the gang gave shelter to the yellow-and blue-shirt bombers at a location two kilometres away from a police station.
It went on to add that the duo were allegedly taken by boat across the Kolok River where two Malaysian men were waiting on the other side to receive them.
