Hong Kong should no longer consider itself safe from extremist attacks, according to a terrorism expert.
Greg Barton, the international director of Monash University’s Global Terrorism Research Centre, said on Friday that the globalised nature of extremism “greatly increases the risk of violent attacks on soft targets largely unrelated to local issues”, according to a report by the SCMP.
Barton cited attacks by Uyghur separatists in Xinjiang and reports of Uygurs fighting in Afghanistan as examples of how militant violence is spreading in China and beyond.
While he admitted that crime and drugs are probably a bigger concerns for Hong Kong, he stressed that preparing for a possible attack was paramount.
“It was only a few years ago that you would have thought the Uyghur issue was really confined to Xinjiang and not a big threat to far beyond that province, but now we have seen that that’s morphing and changing,” he said.
Hong Kong introduced a 35-strong counter-terrorism response unit in 2009, and has since deployed an additional 60-person team to protect “critical infrastructure” such as the MTR and power stations.
Barton’s comments came after Britain raised its terror alert from ‘Substantial’ to ‘Severe’ on Friday, indicating that an attack is very likely. Hong Kong’s terror level remains at ‘Moderate’.
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