Passport hints at a Uighur link in Bangkok bombing
Late on Wednesday Thai police said that the suspect caught close to the Cambodian border was carrying a Chinese passport showing that he came from the&nbsp;far western region of Xinjiang. &nbsp;This suggests a link with the Uighur muslims and potentially ties the bombing to Thailand's recent decision to expel (and repatriate) over 100 Uighurs who had been seeking transit via Thailand to Turkey.
BANGKOK — The Thai police said on Wednesday that their main suspect in a deadly attack on a Bangkok shrine has a Chinese passport indicating that he is from the far western region of Xinjiang but that they had not yet verified whether the passport was authentic.

If confirmed, that information would strengthen the case made by some security analysts that the Aug. 17 bombing of the Erawan Shrine — which killed 20 people, including many ethnic Chinese tourists — was connected to the political grievances of Uighurs, a Turkic, mostly Muslim people. Uighurs in Xinjiang say they are oppressed by the ethnic Han, who dominate China.

More specifically, the involvement of a Xinjiang resident would buttress the argument, which has been widely repeated in the local news media, that the attack may have been revenge for Thailand’s repatriation to China of more than 100 Uighurs in July.

Much remained uncertain, however, and the investigation of the bombing has been plagued by a number of false leads.