Police plan tight clampdown around key areas during Zhang Dejiang's visit. Photo: RTHK
A China analyst said on Monday criticised the planned security arrangements for this week's visit by state leader, Zhang Dejiang, as unnecessarily harsh.
Police have said there's a "quite high" risk of a terrorist attack and they'll implement counter-terrorism measures from Tuesday.
Professor Willy Lam from the Chinese University said the arrangements are much stricter than compared to previous visits from state leaders.
“Perhaps the police might have heard something, which we don’t know, there is no indication that [there] is no indication of so called terrorist threat against the NPC chairman. There have been some allegations by critics of CY Leung that he is doing this to impress the top leader of Beijing in charge of Hong Kong,” he said.
But DAB chairwoman, Starry Lee, said she believes there's a real need for counter-terrorism measures during Zhang's visit.
Speaking after a radio programme, she said looking at the international situation, even a football match was a possible target for terrorists.
Lee says she believes the public understands the need for greater security and that the Hong Kong government needs to ensure the safety of the state leader.
Police sources have said the risk of attacks from Islamic State militants and local radical protesters is high.
_______________________
Last updated: 2016-05-16 HKT 11:48
http://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1260355-20160516.htm
