Uighurs face Thai trial over deadly bomb attack

Two Uighur men arrested shortly after the Aug. 17 bomb attack that killed 20 people in central Bangkok are headed for trial for the terrorist attack.

Police said they are "almost ready" to hand the main bombing case to prosecutors.

It appears that a man identified as Adem Karadag, alias Bilal Turk, will be tried as the man who placed the bomb at the popular Erawan shrine site. He allegedly has confessed to being "the man in the yellow t-shirt" captured on many closed-circuit TV cameras the evening of the bombing.

His alleged accomplice, also an ethnic Uighur who says he is from China, has identified himself as Yusufu Miereaili. The police are about to charge him with actually detonating the bomb with his cellphone, after Karadag had placed it under a bench and fled.

Police have not revealed the motive of the bombing, if any. But the shrine at the center of the attack is popular with Chinese tourists, and 14 of the 20 victims of the bomb were either from China, or were ethnic Chinese from Asian countries.

The pair are believed responsible for a second bomb that exploded harmlessly in a Bangkok canal the following day. That bomb was believed to have been meant for another tourist spot popular with Chinese visitors, but the man carrying the device was delayed by the city's famous traffic jams, and had to abandon it.

Uighurs are ethnically related to Turkish people and almost all Muslim. They comprise the majority population in northwest China's Xinjiang province. Beijing's anti-Uighur and anti-Muslim policies have created resentment and also some terrorist attacks in China and abroad. Uighurs have also been found fighting with al-Qaeda, ISIS and other groups.

Thai police claim they had identified 20 suspects in the bombing investigation, but have managed to arrested only Karadag and Mieraili. At least three Thais are on the wanted list for providing help to the bombers.