November 24, 2015 – A Thai court has indicted two people, Bilal Mohammad and Mieraili Yusufu for the deadly August 17 bombing of Erawan Shrine, Bangkok.
At least 20 people were killed and about 120 injured when the shrine was targeted. Both suspects were indicted on 10 count charge including act of terrorism.
Thai officials say the blast was revenge by a people-smuggling network against Thai authorities for breaking up their operation and that there was neither political nor religious motive behind the attack.
Mieraili Yusufu was identified as a Muslim from Xinjiang while Bilal Mohammed is believed to be the yellow-shirt bomber picked up on surveillance footage after the attack that showed a man leaving a backpack at the scene.
Bilal had insisted that he was just being smuggled to Malaysia using a false Turkish passport.