The Hong Kong police on Tuesday confirmed that six secondary school children were involved in an alleged attempt to manufacture a powerful explosive in the province, and are currently facing terror charges.
According to the police, five males and four females aged between 15 and 39 were arrested Monday on suspicions of “conspiracy to use explosives for terrorist activities.
This comes days after a 50-year-old man took his own life after stabbing a police officer in what authorities said was a “lone wolf” attack.
Speaking with newsmen on Tuesday, Senior Superintendent, Steve Li, from the city’s new national security unit, said Monday’s operation was against gangsters, who tried to manufacture TATP, a high-powered explosive, inside a homemade laboratory situated inside a hostel.
The police said the nine people belonged to a pro-independence group that called itself “Returning Valiant”.
Those arrested included six teenage students and three adults who worked at a local university, a secondary school, and as a driver.
Li said the suspects were planning to attack public facilities including a cross-harbour tunnel, the railway network, and courtrooms to “maximise damage to society”.
Ripples Nigeria learnt that anti-government movements went out of hand in 2019, during massive and often violent pro-democracy protests, which were stamped out with arrests and new national security law.
Although stability has been widely enforced, Hong Kong remains a deeply polarised city where many residents still live under Beijing’s rule.
Meanwhile, the police on Tuesday also said it seized various items from the group, including a small number of explosives, raw materials to produce TATP, air guns, mobile phones, SIM cards, an operating manual on how to plant bombs, and plans to leave the city.
Also, the police said the group was found with about HK$90,000 ($11,585) in cash and froze around HK$600,000 in related bank accounts.
Police have made multiple arrests in the last two years for alleged bomb plots, although no major attack has been carried out successfully.
In April, a 29-year-old man was jailed for 12-years for manufacturing a kilogram of TATP.
