Heavyweights warn of future escalation and possibility of more 'terrorist attacks'
The police arrested six men in connection with a blast triggered just outside the city's LegislativeCouncil Complex two weeks ago, officers announced on Monday.
Some of the six men aged between 18 and 24 are college students. They were charged withconspiracy to commit arson. Police said more people could be arrested as the investigationprogressed.
The case was an organized, premeditated attack on the LegCo building, police said. Thealleged perpetrators had deliberately wrecked a fire alarm before committing the crime.
The police revealed the six men were linked to some "localist" organizations with onlinepresence.
The suspects were described as "black bloc" members as they favored all-black clothing andsported dark glasses and face masks to conceal their identities.
The incident happened near the demonstration zone outside the LegCo building on Dec 9 whilethe second reading of the copyright bill was going on. No one was injured in the incident.
According to surveillance screenshots, a group of more than 10 men wearing hoodies andmasks gathered at the demonstration zone. Later, they broke a fire alarm facility near a publictoilet and pushed over metal barriers nearby before the blast went off.
Police believed the arsonists poured alcohol into a trash bin before lighting a fuse connected toa gas canister and then throwing it in.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said on Monday the police would investigate the incidentthoroughly in a strict manner. Hong Kong people enjoy full freedom of speech in a rational andlawful manner, Leung said, but the city did not accept violence or conduct that might endangerother people's rights and safety.
Chairman of the LegCo Panel on Security Ip Kwok-him was delighted that a breakthrough hadbeen achieved in the investigation. He condemned the violent act and called it a "terroristattack".
Local political analyst Song Sio-chong agreed such an incident should be categorized as a"terrorist attack". Song worried about the city's problems in education - as a series of destructiveincidents had been undertaken by young people, many of them college students.
He said the city's education of young people had failed to fully convey the importance of law andorder. Slim chances of climbing the social ladder and a blind pursuit of what they consideredtheir "ultimate rightness" meant that, instead of venting their anger on the Internet, some youngpeople now intended to transform their discontent into real action.

Source: China Daily