Hong Kong society was treated to a very disturbing incident on Tuesday in the form of several paper tubes that looked like sticks of explosive connected by colored wires to a device resembling an electronic timer. The fake bomb was inside a bag left by a woman dressed in black outside a restaurant at the Star Ferry entrance of Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui, where numerous local people and visitors come and go every day. The case is still under police investigation but the suspect has been identified and found to be a mental patient. While the 18-year-old girl's mental condition may have ruled out the possibility of any terrorist design, it offers us no reason not to be on high alert against real attempts to spread fear while the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary on July 1.

Hong Kong is widely known as one of the safest cities of its kind in the world, which says a lot about the effectiveness of its rule of law and particularly the law-enforcement authorities. That said, the fake bomb scare on Tuesday was not the first of its kind in recent history. For example, an incendiary device placed by radical activists in a garbage bin outside the Legislative Council Complex in 2014 actually went off but did not cause any casualty; and several members of a separatist group were apprehended by police for making and testing crude explosive devices in an abandoned industrial building, also in 2014.

Given the setbacks the separatists and other radical groups have suffered in the past few years one simply cannot rule

out the possibility that some of them might feel the urge to spread fear among members of the public as well as the SAR government and visitors from the mainland amid festive activities. That is why the police have held multiple exercises this year to make sure the anti-terrorist and anti-riot units are in their best shape to thwart any attempt to strike fear among visitors as well as Hong Kong residents amid festive activities.

There is no denying pressure on the Hong Kong Police Force has increased significantly in recent years to step up security measures - especially around government facilities - since the illegal "Occupy Central" movement ended in fall 2014. The Mong Kok riot on the night of the Chinese New Year Day last year was a rude awakening for those who thought political dissent could not be worse than "Occupy Central", as scores of angry men and women - many of them members of separatist groups - showed the world on TV how violent they can be if they want to. The Mong Kok riot was widely regarded as another criminal attempt to intimidate the Hong Kong public and the government with full-on violence. Thus the police should be fully prepared to deal with potential violent actions, even terrorist attacks, during the coming anniversary celebrations.

(HK Edition 06/01/2017 page8)