A large yellow banner reading “Oppose bad police, protect students” was unfurled on Devil’s Peak on Thursday morning, a week after tear gas and rubber bullets were deployed against crowds protesting the government’s controversial extradition bill.
The 30 metre-long sign near Ko Chiu Road in Kowloon was reported to police at 5.34am and removed by the Fire Department at around 9.10am. Police said the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department will follow up on the case.
The sign was also displayed by protesters calling for the withdrawal of the proposed extradition law last Sunday, which organisers said was attended by an unprecedented two million people, although police put the figure at 338,000 along the designated walking route at the protest’s peak.
The march occurred four days after clashes broke out outside the legislature between protesters and police, in some of the worst violence the city has seen in years. Around 22 police and 81 civilians were injured – two of whom sustained serious injuries, according to authorities.
The protests were in response to legal amendments proposed in February to allow it to handle case-by-case extradition requests from jurisdictions with no prior agreements – notably China – though lawyers, journalists, foreign politicians and businesses have raised concerns over the risk of residents being extradited to the mainland, which lacks human rights protections.
The bill was suspended until further notice on Saturday owing to recent unrest and since Taiwan had made it clear that it would not receive the murder suspect who triggered the proposal, according to the government.
Six student unions have said they will escalate protest actions if the government does not respond to their demands by 5pm Thursday, among which is to axe the bill entirely.
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