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Hong Kong police raid university after student union mourned man who stabbed security operative

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The Hong Kong national police on Friday raided buildings at the city’s top ivory tower, University of Hong Kong (HKU), after its student leaders paid tribute to a man who stabbed a policeman.

A lone attacker had on July 1, knifed a police officer in a busy shopping district before taking his own life in what authorities called an act of “domestic terrorism”.

Following the development, officials warned residents against mourning the attacker, saying it would amount to “advocating violence, inciting hatred and beautifying attacks”.

However, the student union council at HKU, in a statement, expressed “deep sadness” at the man’s death, which prompted officials to call for action against the body.

Dozens of police officers with suitcases and boxes arrived at the university on Friday afternoon, searching buildings housing the student union, campus TV station, and undergraduate office.

Speaking with reporters, chairperson of the campus TV station, Kong Chak-ho, said, “The police is investigating a case related to advocating terrorism and searched our studio.”

Also, a spokesperson for HKU confirmed that the police entered the campus to investigate a case with a court order and the university was “obliged to act in compliance”.

Although the student union council last Friday withdrew its motion expressing sympathy for the attacker, and apologised for the act, the hostile response has been merciless.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, who is also the university’s chancellor, on Tuesday called on HKU’s management as well as police to look into the motion for any violation of the law.

She called the resolution by the student union council “infuriating” and said she was “ashamed”.

READ ALSO: Hong Kong police confirm involvement of six secondary school kids in plot to build ‘powerful’ bomb

HKU has severed ties with its own student union while the chairman of the university’s governing council said he would welcome any investigation by the national security authorities.

This is not the first time the national police have entered a university campus in Hong Kong as part of an investigation under the city’s national security law.

Last November, officers arrested at least nine people on suspicion of threatening national security after an on-campus demonstration featured slogans the authorities have declared illegal.

More than 100 people, including many of the city’s best known democracy advocates, have been arrested under the law.

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