HONG KONG LEADERS SAY SORRY AFTER WATER CANNON HIT MOSQUE
▶ Riot police sprayed the Islamic centre and bystanders while trying to contain demonstrations
Hong Kong officials apologised to Muslim leaders yesterday after riot police sprayed a mosque and bystanders with stinging blue-dyed liquid while trying to contain pro-democracy demonstrations.
The city’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, and Hong Kong’s police chief visited the Kowloon Mosque to say sorry to the chief imam and Muslim community leaders.
They left without commenting but the mosque leaders later said the officials apologised.
“Our mosque is not damaged,” said Saeed Uddin, honorary secretary of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong. He said they accepted the officials’ apology.
During Sunday’s protest, a police water cannon that was passing the mosque suddenly sprayed a handful of people standing in front of the building’s gate, according to video of the incident by pro-democracy politician Jeremy Tam.
The mosque’s front steps, metal gate and the pavement outside were stained with the blue liquid while the people caught in the water jet were left gagging, coughing and trying to rinse the solution from their eyes, the video shows.
Volunteers later arrived to help clean up, and by yesterday morning the blue coating was largely gone.
Mr Tam said on his Facebook page that he and two others, an Indian businessman and the head of a charity for ethnic minorities, went to the hospital to check for injuries.
Local broadcaster RTHK reported the people outside the mosque were there to guard it.
The Hong Kong authorities moved to minimise the fallout from the incident, which protesters seized on as the latest example of what they call harsh police tactics.
Police used the water cannon along with tear gas and pepper spray to battle protesters who remained on the streets after the end of an unauthorised rally. They were rallying to calls for broader political rights and police accountability, in the latest turmoil to grip the financial centre since early June.
Hong Kong is home to more than 300,000 Muslims, according to the Islamic Community Fund, which runs the city’s
It is most unfortunate that the dispersal operation has caused an unintended impact on the Kowloon Mosque
five mosques and two Muslim cemeteries. Muslims arrived in the 19th century after being recruited in India by British colonisers. Police on Sunday apologised.
“It is most unfortunate that the dispersal operation has caused unintended impact on the Kowloon Mosque,” the force said.
Later yesterday, organisers planned an evening sit-in at a suburban train station on the three-month anniversary of a violent attack there on protesters by men with suspected ties to organised crime gangs.
Hong Kong’s metro operator said it would close the station in a bid to foil the protesters, who have damaged and set fire to transport hubs in anger at the operator’s apparent support for the authorities.
HONG KONG POLICE