Hong Kong's 'Mother of Satan' Bomb Plot: How Police Stopped a Terror Campaign

Sentencing is due tomorrow for three masterminds behind a 2020 domestic terror plot that targeted a hospital and a border checkpoint. After a 159-day trial, a jury found Ho Cheuk-wai, Lee Ka-pan, and Cheung Ka-chun guilty of conspiracy to cause explosions. Court evidence revealed a chilling escalation of violence, including plans for a 20kg bomb in a residential area and the use of high-performance TATP explosives, a plot that was only stopped by timely police intervention.
 
This case was prosecuted under the Counter-Terrorism Ordinance, as it predated the Hong Kong National Security Law, and carries a sentence of up to 20 years. But the charges barely capture the reality: this was a coordinated attempt to carry out indiscriminate attacks on the public. Had police not uncovered their plan to detonate a massive homemade bomb in Tseung Kwan O, a massacre would have been unavoidable.
 
An Attack on a Hospital
The terror campaign began on January 27, 2020. At 2:20 AM, an improvised explosive device, packed with "Rocket Candy," blew up in a men's toilet at Caritas Medical Centre's A&E. A police officer, there by chance, helped manage the evacuation. The blast was powerful enough to shatter pipes. A Telegram channel, "Kau Chim 92," later claimed responsibility, stating the attack was meant to force a strike by medical staff.

The wreckage: What a 'Rocket Candy' bomb did to a toilet stall in Caritas Medical Centre's A&E.

Explosives expert Superintendent Lo Ping-sin told the court what his team found in the wreckage: a shattered glass bottle containing up to a kilogram of a nitrate-based explosive. Wired to a circuit board and wrapped in black tape, it was a classic improvised explosive device (IED) designed to produce intense flames and smoke that water couldn't extinguish—powerful enough to kill, maim, or cause massive damage.
 
Another expert, Acting Senior Superintendent Li Chin-chiu, confirmed the device was a "Rocket Candy" bomb. He testified that the dense, high-temperature smoke it produced could have caused lung burns and blocked escape routes, a deadly scenario in a hospital filled with immobile patients on wheelchairs.
 
"Baked Alive" on a Train
The second attack came on February 2. A cleaner on an MTR train pulling into Lo Wu Station found a bag containing a suspicious object with a flashing red light. She immediately moved it to the platform just as it began spewing thick smoke, averting disaster. The same Telegram group claimed responsibility, demanding the government close the border.

Averted disaster: This bag held a bomb designed to fill a train with deadly smoke. A cleaner's quick action at Lo Wu MTR station prevented mass casualties.

Superintendent Lo confirmed two IEDs were recovered from the scene at Lo Wu. One contained about a kilogram of low-grade explosives. Both were built with the same radio-controlled design using potassium nitrate and sugar, and both were fully capable of causing death or serious injury.

A Meticulously Planned Massacre
Acting Senior Superintendent Li painted an even grimmer picture. He testified that if the cleaner hadn't found the bomb, the casualties would have been catastrophic. Had it gone off in the enclosed carriage, passengers would have been blinded by smoke and potentially "baked alive" by the heat. Li believed the bomb was "meticulously designed" not for Lo Wu, but to detonate 40 minutes later, when the train returned to a crowded urban area, leaving passengers with "nowhere to run."
 
The third plot was the most ambitious: a 20kg "tombstone-shaped bomb" to be detonated outside Sheung Tak Estate car park in Tseung Kwan O. The target date was March 8, during a memorial event for HKUST student Chow Tsz-lok. Police uncovered the plot just in time, arresting the suspects on March 7 after monitoring their Telegram group where they discussed the plan.

The target: Terrorists planned to detonate a 20kg 'tombstone bomb' here, at a memorial event in Tseung Kwan O, on March 8, 2020. (Image source: Sing Tao Daily)(圖片來源:星島日報)

According to Li Chin-chiu's court testimony, a 20kg "glitter powder" bomb would have had astonishing power. Its kill radius would have been dozens of meters, with the shockwave and sound felt from 300 meters away.
 
The Urban Bomb Factory
Beyond the attacks, the case exposed the group's arsenal. The first two defendants, Ho Cheuk-wai and Lee Ka-pan, rented two units in INNO CENTRE, Tai Kok Tsui. Police discovered what one expert called an "explosives warehouse," a ticking time bomb that endangered the entire building and surrounding community.

An urban bomb factory: Police display some of the massive cache of explosives and raw materials seized from two units in Tai Kok Tsui. (Image source: Sing Tao Daily)(圖片來源:星島日報)

The court heard that in March 2020, police raids on the units turned up a terrifying inventory. Room 503 contained TATP explosives, 35.2kg of raw materials like potassium nitrate and aluminum powder, protective gear, and remote-detonation circuit boards. Room 1008 held over a ton of potassium nitrate (1090.75kg) and 57.5kg of an ammonium nitrate/aluminum powder mixture.
 
Li Chin-chiu testified that the mix of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder could produce about 70kg of AN/AL explosive, a favorite of terrorist organizations worldwide. The units also contained over 100kg of aluminum powder and 92kg of magnesium powder to boost destructive power. As for the TATP found, it's an infamous high-performance explosive, once dubbed "the mother of Satan" for its immense power.
 
The Terrorist's Playbook
Another expert, Superintendent Cheung Lap-tak, testified that the seized electronic matches, batteries, circuits, and fuses were the four key elements for any IED: power, initiator, switch, and explosive. He confirmed the devices were lethal, with the "Rocket Candy" bomb capable of causing serious damage within a 2-meter radius, and that a fire in Room 1008 would have been catastrophic due to the other chemicals stored there.
 
During the investigation, police found an image on a defendant's phone of a bomb designed to be packed with iron nails. Li Chin-chiu stated in court that adding shrapnel like nails or screws is a classic terrorist tactic designed to maximize indiscriminate carnage by causing direct piercing injuries to anyone nearby.
 
This case lays bare the real and evolving threat of domestic terrorism to Hong Kong's public safety. The bomb-making technology used by these extremist groups advanced rapidly, and their attack plans grew ever more ambitious. If not for the diligent work of the police, an indiscriminate attack on citizens would have led to unimaginable consequences.

Ariel

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Jimmy Lai’s latest courtroom moment comes with a blunt reality check: the “solitary confinement” narrative doesn’t look the way overseas headlines sell it. At the West Kowloon Court on Monday (Jan 12), prosecutors say Lai requested the arrangement himself—worried he’d be harassed because his case was so widely reported—and the Correctional Services Department approved it after assessment. Two judges put it in plain language: “This wasn’t imposed on him by others—it was his own request,” and “If he wants, he can stop at any time.”

Prosecutors tell the court Lai’s solitary confinement is his own choice, not something forced on him. AP file photo.

That clashes head-on with what Lai’s children tell foreign media: they describe an elderly father kept alone for more than 1,000 days in a cell “without sunlight,” with summer temperatures hitting 40℃, dramatic weight loss, weakness, discolored nails “falling off,” and rotting teeth—basically a countdown to the end. They also accuse correctional staff of blocking communion for the Catholic Lai, or even cutting off curry sauce once they learned he liked it—small details used to paint a picture of psychological breaking tactics.

In court, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Anthony Chau tells a very different story: solitary confinement starts with Lai’s own application. Chau says that when Lai is remanded in late 2020, he believes his case is splashed everywhere and fears trouble from other inmates, so he applies to the Correctional Services Department. The department’s report, Chau says, finds him suitable—and it reviews the arrangment monthly, asking each time whether Lai wants to continue, with Lai confirming he does.

Chau also stresses that “solitary” doesn’t mean stripped of prisoner rights under the Prison Rules. He says Lai still has social contact—family communication, letters, publications—and can take part in religious activities such as receiving communion, and that Lai has never filed a complaint about these matters. Chau adds that Lai’s daily routine includes reading, outdoor exercise, “meaningful light duty work,” and daily health monitoring.

The courtroom reality check

The defense tries to shift the focus to age and health. Senior counsel Robert Pang tells the court Lai has high blood pressure, diabetes, and eye problems; none are immediately life-threatening, he says, but at 78, solitary confinement hits harder than it would for a younger inmate. Pang frames it starkly: “Every day he spent in prison will bring him that much closer to the end of his life,” and he cites a European Committee for the Prevention of Torture report warning solitary confinement harms prisoners and is treated as punishment in prison systems.

Judge Esther Toh isn't buying the "imposed punishment" framing, and she says so on the spot. She points out that this arrangement wasn't imposed on him by others—it was his own request, then offers a pointed analogy: it's like choosing between sharing a double room with your wife or taking a single room, picking one option, and then calling it "torture." Another judge, Alex Lee, makes the practical point: "It's not an additional punishment imposed on him. He can always end it if he chooses to."

Commentary circulating among observers says those two lines from the bench puncture the overseas media storyline in one go: the claim that Lai is forcibly kept in solitary. The same commentary says Lai’s family and foreign media keep running the “sob story,” while court appearances and medical reports tendered in evidence show his health is broadly fine—and that during remand he even gains weight at one point, with fluctuations that still leave him in an obese BMI range, not the “frail and wasting” picture described abroad.