By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thailand's police said Sunday that even though the perpetrator of last Monday’s bombing in central Bangkok had probably left the country investigations would continue, as media continued to question the integrity of the probe into the blast.
Both the investigation and attitude of the junta have been heavily criticized by local and international journalists, with police officers and representatives of the military-appointed government regularly contradicting each other, and evidence appearing to remain at the scene of the blast.
“[The bomber] may have left, but we will keep searching in case we could find others who are still in the country or find more evidence,” Prawuth Thavornsiri told local reporters.
In the meantime, police are launching a city-wide crackdown on “all forms of vice and crime” to rebuild the faith of a public still troubled by the Aug. 17 bomb attack in which which 20 people died, and 125 others were injured.
Thai Police Chief General Somyot Pumpanmuang told the Bangkok Post Sunday that the operation was to “seal off the city to look for criminals.”
"It is part of a psychological action to mount pressure on the perpetrators of the bombing,” he added.
Almost a week after the bombing, the only substantial evidence Thai police have is grainy security camera footage showing a young man leaving a bag at the Erawan Shrine, and then departing the compound a few minutes before the explosion.
One day after police issued an arrest warrant for the suspect that described him as a “foreign man" a military spokesman said the army believe the attack wasn’t the work of international terrorists.
On Thursday, meanwhile, a journalist found shrapnel and ball bearings embedded in a wall near the shrine where the explosion took place, and when he brought the evidence to the police headquarters, he was told that the office was closed.
Reporters for a Japanese TV channel also found scraps of what could be the bag containing the bomb, according to the Sunday edition of Matichon newspaper.
On Saturday, Pumpanmuang denied information related by several local and international media about the possible name of the main suspect, but then only confused matters by saying that if he did know, he would not tell the press.
