Heavily criticised deputy police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul said Monday he would return to Tham Luang cave to supervise the search as a Facebook campaigner apologises for demanding his ouster.
Wibulthon Kamolnaruemeth met Pol Gen Srivara at the Royal Thai Police Office to apologise for inviting people to support his call for the senior officer to be dismissed.
Mr Wibulthon posted his angry messages after watching two shared video clips showing Pol Gen Srivara recently speaking about the need to follow regulations on cave boring and drone operations in the search for 12 young footballers and their coach inside Tham Luang cave.
Mr Wibulthon questioned why Pol Gen Srivara had to made the remarks, which appeared to obstruct officials' search operations..
He said he understood what Pol Gen Srivara was doing after watching full-length clips a police officer later sent him.
He erased his earlier Facebook post earlier garnishing support for the ouster, and said he was happy Pol Gen Srivara had forgiven him.
Pol Gen Srivara said his remarks were made to his close subordinates, instructing them to follow regulations on operating drones and boring the cave, because he did not want government officials to make mistakes.
Drones could affect helicopters in the area, and careless cave boring could cause the cave to collapse, he said.
He said he would find the source of the edited clips that had shown him in a poor lights, and he would return to Tham Luang on Tuesday because he was authorised to oversee police special operations.
Pol Maj Gen Srivara was heavily criticised after the clips were posted. Mr Wibulthon, a Bangkok resident, on Friday night posted a Facebook message calling on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to consider dismissing Pol Gen Srivara from his job. He also asked those who agreed with him to leave comments in support. The post got more than 400,000 likes and received more than 192,000 comments on the same day.
