The man Thai police believe masterminded last month’s deadly Bangkok bombing fled to Bangladesh the day before the attack and travelled on a Chinese passport, officials said on Wednesday.

One of the arrested suspects who has been questioned here had indicated that Izan was the mastermind behind the blast that killed 20 people and injured more than 100 others.

The use of Chinese passports, at the very least considered one of which said Xinjiang as a birthplace, provides gasoline to hypothesis the bombing might have been a revenge assault by sympathisers of Turkic-talking Uighur Muslims. The Police Chief did not name the neighbouring country and the bribe taker. The man Thai police believe organised the plot is said to have taken a flight from Dhaka to Beijing on August 30, when the capital was under heavy security for the massive military parade.

National Police spokesman Prawut Thavonsiri said Thursday that they’ve sent copies of the passport to both Turkey and China, as they check the document’s authenticity.

Thai government officials, including retiring police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung, did not define the bomb attack as a “terrorist act” out of fear of spoiling the country’s tourist industry, which has become Thailand’s largest earner.

“Yusufu said the backpack he maintained was not light also it was a-bomb”, he explained.

Police have suggested a man carrying a Chinese passport in the name Abudureheman Abudusataer may have directed the bombing of the Erawan Shrine.

Prawut said police were checking whether other suspects, including perhaps the man who placed the bomb at the shrine, were trying to flee via Thailand’s southern border with Malaysia.

Thailand was extensively condemned in July for forcibly repatriating 109 Uighurs to China, the place they are saying they’re persecuted. Following their forcible return to China, violent protests in Istanbul targeted the Thai and Chinese missions.

After making the exchange, Prawut said Mieraili was then ordered to travel to the shrine to take photos of the aftermath of the bomb.

Mierili, who police have also identified as Yusufu Mieraili, faces charges of conspiracy to possess unauthorised explosives.

He said police inspector-general Nares Nanthachoti was investigating the bribery scandal and was expected to report the results on September 23.

But on Wednesday Prawut refused to comment on that theory. “At the Thai border he paid USA $600 to cross into Thailand“.