The latest incident to grab the attention of traditional and social media relates to a cavity search conducted on a female student charged with violating the National Council for Peace and Order ban on political gatherings after she joined a train rally to the scandal-plagued Rajabhakti Park.

The directive on conducting searches on prisoners, enforced since 1936, stipulates that body searches must be carried out by someone of the same sex.

For females, if a woman prison official is not available another trusted woman can carry out the search.

Prison officials have taken a hardline approach to body searches following a number of incidents involving prisoners smuggling illegal drugs into prisons by swallowing them or inserting mobile phones into someone's anus or vagina. Three phones have been inserted into an anus before.

more Row heats up over body searches - The Nation