Thai police chief links Uighurs to Bangkok bomb

Bangkok

THAILAND's police chief on Tuesday linked the recent Bangkok bomb blast to China's Uighurs for the first time, as the lawyer for one of two detained foreign suspects confirmed that his client is from the Muslim minority.

For weeks, Thai police have skirted around mentioning the word Uighur or suggesting their possible involvement in the attack, despite arrests and warrants that increasingly pointed in that direction.

The Aug 17 bombing killed 20 people, the majority of them ethnic Chinese tourists, raising the possibility of a link to militants or supporters of the Uighurs, an ethnic group who say that they face heavy persecution in China.

A month earlier, Thailand had forcibly deported more than 100 Uighur refugees to China, sparking international condemnation as well as violent protests in Turkey, where nationalist hardliners see the mino…