BANGKOK — Moments after word began to spread yesterday of a new arrest in the Erawan Shrine bombing, an image said to be of the man’s passport began circulating, only to be quickly disavowed by authorities.

The quick denial matched the pattern of tight-lipped mouthpieces sticking to the script in the face of information released from porous back channels, but was unsurprising as the passport provided the first direct link between the bombing, Turkish operatives and an ethnic group in China’s far west.

Read more: khaosodenglish.com