Thai police blame media for hindering bomb probe

By Max Constant

BANGKOK

Thailand's deputy national police chief has blamed media for jeopardizing the investigation into the Aug. 17 Bangkok bombing, claiming that the chief suspect is always one step ahead of investigators as media keep giving advance reports of police movements.

Last week, media -- based on information the Bangkok Post says police gave out -- said that the yellow-shirted suspected bomber thought to have targeted the Erawan shrine in the blast that killed 20 -- had fled to Malaysia with the help of Thai and Malaysian nationals, clearly riling Gen. Chakthip Chaijinda -- who will become police chief Oct. 1.

"Honestly, I regret [that we wasted so much time]... he [the suspect] is now like a free bird and we don't know where he is heading to. I believe the suspected bomber has already fled Malaysia," the Post reported him saying at a press conference Friday.

"Last week, I was one hundred percent sure [of arresting him], but this week we have to start all over again," said Chakthip.

“Go ahead, report more on in-depth information of the investigation, and police will find it even harder to catch the suspects... If there had not been reports about suspects fleeing here and there, they would have been arrested last week."

With regard to the ongoing investigation, Chakthip said it is also still unclear if Malaysian authorities will allow Thai officials to question three suspects detained in the country on suspicion of human trafficking.

On Thursday, an arrest warrant - the 13th in the case - was issued for a man named as "Abdul Tawab" who police claim is a Pakistani citizen.

Police say they consider Tawab a suspect because of financial transactions between him and a person Thai police have described as a Turkish citizen whose Thai wife rented the apartment where bomb-making materials were found during a police raid Aug. 29.

The Bangkok Post reported Friday that Tawab is “believed to be the leader of the human trafficking network that smuggled Uighur into a third country through Thailand”.

The Post also said that Tawab is believed to have arranged the escape of at least two suspects from the Kingdom.

So far, Thai police have arrested three suspects -- a 28-year-old man, who has told his lawyer that he was born in Xinjiang, the north-western Chinese province which is home to the Muslim Uighur minority, but has since become a Turkish citizen; another man, arrested Sept. 1 near the Cambodian border and holding a Chinese passport with Xinjiang as birthplace, and a Thai national from the country's south who is suspected by police of being a “key person” in a people smuggling network.

Uighur living in Xinjiang claim their cultural and religious rights are being curtailed by Chinese authorities, and thousands of them have fled with the aid of people smugglers, some to settle in Turkey.

Bangkok deported 109 Uighur to China in July, separating families, troubling human rights groups, and infuriating Uighur organizations worldwide.

Thai police chief General Somyot Pumpanmuang told reporters at a press conference Tuesday that there was a connection between the deportation and the bombing, but he backtracked Wednesday after reportedly being brought to heel by junta chief-cum-prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

He has since repeated an earlier narrative that the attack - which killed 20 - was an act of revenge by people smugglers whose interests were affected by a crackdown on human trafficking.