Is Beijing bullying Thai police? Bangkok blast investigation has veered sharply away from Uygur link
Pressure from Beijing may have prompted backflip on main theory about who carried out last month's bombing attack on Bangkok's Erawan Shrine
The police investigation into the Bangkok shrine blast increasingly points towards a game-changing attack on Chinese tourists by Uygur militants or sympathisers, analysts say - but Thailand and Beijing are loath to admit it.
Nearly a month after the August 17 attack, Thailand has two foreigners in custody and a dozen arrest warrants issued, and insists the network responsible for the explosion is in their crosshairs.
But investigators have yet to provide a compelling motive for the carnage in Bangkok's commercial heart, which left 20 people dead - the majority ethnic Chinese tourists.
The leading theory they have offered is that the bomb was an act of revenge by criminals striking back at a police crackdown on a people-smuggling network.
That take has been shredded by analysts and the Thai public, unconvinced a criminal gang would have the means or motivation to carry out such a brutal act.
In recent days, links with militants from the Chinese Uygur minority - or ethnic Turkic supporters - seem to have firmed up with the passports, ethnicities and travel plans of key suspects all appearing to point in that direction.
