Tiananmen Square Massacre: Hong Kongers hold protests as authorities ban annual vigil at Victoria Park, six held

Hong Kongers have staged small protests across the city on Friday evening to mark the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown after authorities banned the annual vigil at Victoria Park.

According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), protesters fanned out across the city, staging protests by lighting candles or flashing their mobile phones.

They also shouted pro-independence slogans in defiance of a police ban on the annual vigil at Victoria Park.

According to reports, at least six people aged 20 to 75 have been arrested on suspicion of inciting others to participate in an unauthorised assembly, ordinary assault, disorderly conduct in a public place and obstruction of police.

Twelve people were fined for flouting the coronavirus-related ban on public gatherings of more than four people.

The dispersed display of protest was in response to police putting the park into security lockdown and turning away people who would have otherwise shown up to commemorate the crackdown 32 years ago.

In Mong Kok, a group clad in black chanted "Hong Kong independence, the only way out" and "Rogue cops, may your family members die", popular rallying cries during the 2019 anti-government demonstrations.

In another flashback to the unrest, a taxi lane in front of the Times Square shopping centre in Causeway Bay was blocked with rubbish bins, resulting in a squad of police officers giving chase down the street to a group in black.

Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements was planning a commemorative rally at the park on Friday evening. But the authorities withheld permission, citing measures against coronavirus.

Huge crowds usually gather in Hong Kong's Victoria Park each year to mark the anniversary of Chinese troops crushing peaceful democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989.

There was international condemnation after troops and tanks opened fire on protesters in Beijing - estimates of the dead vary from a few hundred to several thousand.

( With inputs from ANI )