[ SCMP ] National security law: students and university employee among 9 arrested over alleged terrorist plot to bomb streets, courts, transport networks
Hong Kong’s national security police have arrested nine people, most of them teenagers, over an alleged terrorist plot by a pro-independence group to bomb courts, tunnels and streets in a series of attacks in the coming week.
The suspects included six students – four boys and two girls aged between 15 and 18 – and a staff member at Baptist University. Police were also hunting for others suspected of funding the plot.
Senior Superintendent Steve Li Kwai-wah said officers raided a guest house on Nathan Road in the Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district at around noon on Monday and discovered a makeshift laboratory set up in a small room which had been rented since June.
Two teenagers were arrested at the scene, where police seized a trace quantity of explosives, two bottles of liquid chemicals and laboratory equipment required to produce triacetone triperoxide, a highly unstable and powerful explosive known as TATP.
According to police, the six secondary school goers were recruited by a group known as “Returning Valiant”, which promoted Hong Kong independence on its website and through fliers.
The organisation was planning to help the suspects flee the city after the attacks and had funds ready to finance their escape, investigators found.
Returning Valiant confirmed on its website that some members had been arrested and vowed the remaining ones would “continue to gather talents and fight against tyranny”.
The operation was highly organised, according to Li, with members assigned specific roles to carry out the plot, such as handling funds or buying the bomb-making chemicals.
The arrested staff member at Baptist University was believed to have provided funding, and police had frozen HK$600,000 (US$77,240) in his bank accounts, according to a source. He was identified by an insider as a public relations officer working at the university’s School of Continuing Education.
His wife was among the arrested and she worked as an administrative staff member at a secondary school, the source said, adding the couple had previously driven protesters home from demonstrations.
The six teenagers came from three different schools. Officers found more than HK$80,000 in their possession, and seized another HK$10,000 in foreign currency that they were meant to receive after fleeing.
Communication devices and overseas SIM cards were also seized, along with manuals outlining details of how to plant bombs and laying out plans for escape.
The nine suspects have been arrested on suspicion of engaging in terrorist activities, an offence under the national security law that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.