Hong Kong braces weekend fresh anti-government protests

Hong Kong: Hong Kong is preparing for a weekend of demonstrations, including a human chain at major subway lines on Friday and a democracy march on Sunday, the latest moves in more than four months of anti-government protests.

Although the last few days have been relatively calm, with protesters staying off the streets, prominent human rights activist Jimmy Sham was brutally attacked on Wednesday, a move pro-democracy lawmakers said was meant to intimidate protesters and incite violence.

Hong Kong

The Civil Human Rights Front, which Sham leads, is one of the biggest pro-democracy groups in the former British colony and organised million-strong marches in June. The group has called for a march on Sunday in Kowloon, but police on Friday said the event would not be permitted.

Instead, she announced measures to ease Hong Kong’s acute housing shortage – an issue that has partly fuelled anger for the protests because of the city’s exorbitant property prices.

The bill’s withdrawal was one of the protesters’ key requests, but they say four others – an independent inquiry into police behaviour, a waiver for all people charged in the protests, removing the characterization of the protests as “riots” and universal suffrage – must be addressed.

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