Hong Kong’s Lam Calls for Teens to Be Watched as Police Thwart Bomb Plot | Hong Kong News

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The Hong Kong leader’s comments came as police arrested nine people, including six high school students, for an alleged bomb plot.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam urged parents and teachers to report law-breaking teens as police in the Chinese-controlled city arrested nine people, including six high school students, for an alleged conspiracy to the bomb.

Lam’s comment on Tuesday comes amid seething anger and frustration in Hong Kong over a Chinese crackdown over a sweeping national security law and electoral changes that ban politicians on trial disloyal to Beijing.

“For a long time, citizens have been exposed to misconceptions, such as obtaining justice through illegal means,” Lam told reporters at his weekly press conference. Risks to national security stem not only from acts of “public order” but also from ideology, she said, ordering government departments not to allow “illegal ideas to filter to the public. through education, broadcasting, the arts and culture “.

“I also call on parents, principals, teachers and even pastors to observe the actions of adolescents around them,” she added. “If there are adolescents who commit illegal acts, they need to be reported. “

Hong Kong has taken a rapid authoritarian turn since China’s imposition of the National Security Law last year. Critics say the legislation, enacted to suppress dissent after huge pro-democracy protests in 2019, has eroded Hong Kong’s freedoms, with the government’s most prominent opponents either in jail or on the run. ‘foreign.

A new national security unit created under the law announced on Tuesday that it had foiled an alleged bomb plot, claiming to have arrested five men and four women aged 15 to 39 the day before on suspicion of “conspiracy to use explosives for terrorist purposes ”. .

Chief Superintendent Steve Li said the group was trying to make explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP) in a homemade lab in a youth hostel and planned to use the explosives to bomb courts, cross-border tunnels and train tracks. .

They even planned to put some of the explosives in garbage cans in the street “to maximize the damage done to society”.

Li said the nine belonged to a pro-independence group called “Returning Valiant” and said the group were all planning to leave Hong Kong for good. They planned to carry out the sabotage before leaving town, he added.

News of the arrests came just days after a 50-year-old man committed suicide after stabbing a police officer in what authorities called a “lone wolf” attack.

People came to the scene of the attack on Friday, some with children, to pay tribute to the attacker and lay flowers, prompting condemnation from Lam and other officials.

Lam said residents should not be fooled by messages circulating online suggesting the government had any responsibility for the violence, or by slogans such as “there is no violence, only tyranny” .

“Don’t look for excuses on behalf of the violent,” Lam said.



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