By Max Constant
BANGKOK
Thai police believe that two people suspected of involvement in explosions in Bangkok which killed 20 people are hiding in Cambodia and have sought assistance from their neighbor in arresting them.
The Bangkok Post on Tuesday quoted an unnamed Crime Suppression Division source as saying that division Chief Akkaradej Pimonsri had instructed his deputy, Pol. Col. Itthipol Atchariyapradit, to ask Cambodian authorities to track down the duo.
The men are believed to be a man in a yellow T-shirt caught on CCTV allegedly planting the bomb at the Erawan Shrine on Aug.17, and another suspect caught on camera dropping a plastic bag with a suspected explosive device from a footbridge Aug. 18.
On Tuesday, police said that they had made more arrests related to the bombing.
In a televised address, Col. Winthai Surawee said the interrogation of a man arrested Saturday at a Bangkok apartment complex had led investigators to additional suspects.
A stash of fake Turkish passports and bomb-making materials similar to those used in the explosion that left 20 dead and more than 120 others wounded were found at the apartment.
Surawee called on the public to report "suspicious people to the authorities."
“To help the on-going investigation, we ask for the cooperation of the owners of residences, guesthouses, and apartments to notify the military or police officers or call 1515 if any suspicious individual stay at your premises,” he said.
He did not provide any more details of the arrests.
On Monday, a third suspect - pictured with a man believed to be a foreigner in an identikit sketch released Monday - told relatives that she was in Turkey.
Police, however, have said they are not convinced she ever left Thailand.
The Post reported police as saying that witnesses had told them they had seen her and the man from the identikit sketch at the Bangkok apartment complex where the chief suspect was arrested Saturday.
Police have said that she is suspected of helping the bombers rent the apartments in which they were living.
On Monday, junta leader-cum-prime minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha admitted that the network involved in the bombings could be linked to human trafficking rings smuggling Uighur through the country.
Media have speculated on a connection between the bombing at a shrine -- popular with tourists, especially Chinese -- and Thailand sending 109 ethnic Uighur to China, from a group of around 350 who were being held in Thai immigration centers.
Around 180 had earlier been sent to Turkey, which welcomes Uighur as its own as they are among a number of Turkic tribes that inhabit a region many Turks call East Turkestan and consider to be part of Central Asia, not China.
Thairath Online reported Tuesday that the suspect arrested Saturday had told police that he had entered Thailand through its border with Cambodia - where Uighur have previously been detained trying to enter the Kingdom - after bribing a local immigration officer.
The website said that the chief of Sa Kaeo immigration police and five other officers had subsequently been transferred to Bangkok for allegedly taking bribes.
It added that he had admitted to police that he used a fake Turkish passport, and said that he had flown to Vietnam, crossed the border into Laos, and then driven down through the landlocked southeast Asian nation to Cambodia.
From there, it said that he had paid Bht18,000 ($500) to officials so that he would not have to use his fake passport to go through a regular immigration procedure.
The man continues to be questioned by the military, which has not said anything about his real identity or nationality.
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