▶ Sydney Song / Granada Hills Charter High School 10th Grade
For the past couple years, there have been tensions over the control of the Thailand military coup government. These tensions could have been the cause of the August 18, 2015 pipe bombing incident that left more than 20 dead and many others injured in Bangkok, Thailand outside the popular Erawan religious shrine and near downtown Bangkok’s main shopping area. There was another bombing the day after, on Tuesday, but it is unclear if the second bombing had anything to do with the first.
Authorities are suspecting that a man in a bright yellow shirt and glasses captured on a security-camera footage was the perpetrator. However, his whereabouts are unknown and the evidence against the man lacks full reliability.
Because the location of the initial bombing was a popular tourist attraction, the majority of the people found dead were tourists who were visiting Thailand. Of the people who had been identified, there were two mainland Chinese, two Hong Kong Chinese, a Singaporean, and five Thais. The rest of the bodies were difficult to identify because they were dismembered by the explosion. There were also at least 100 more people who were injured by the blast.
Cleaning crews crowded the streets of the incident because the splattered bloodstains on the walls of multiple story buildings and the unrecognizable remains of the shrine were scattered everywhere.
Now, why the attack? Authorities aren’t giving out much information about what the motive of the bombing was, most likely because they don’t know for sure either, but they have said that unspecified people might have been wanting to hurt Thailand’s tourism industry and economy. There had been multiple international terrorist attacks because of this same reason. However, a government spokesman Maj. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that the bombing “was probably conducted by the same group of people who lost privileges and who want to create a disturbance to the country.” This implies a reference to a political movement leader Mr. Thaksin whose movement was ousted in the coup last year.
Much sorrow, mourning, and questions followed this bombing incident. Authorities are still looking for other possible motives and reasons why these people had such a hard heart in the first place. As of now, we don’t have any definite answers.