HONG KONG (AP)--Protesting an anti-cult exhibition, members of the Falun Gong spiritual group Sunday handed out leaflets rejecting official criticism of their sect and showed photographs of members allegedly tortured by Chinese authorities.
Around 10 sect members gathered near Hong Kong's City Hall to distribute materials that disputed the Chinese government's claim that five people who set themselves ablaze in Tiananmen Square in January in a widely reported suicide attempt belonged to Falun Gong
The demonstrators were protesting an unprecedented anti-cult exhibition organized by local pro-Beijing organizations. Consisting of more than 200 pictures, it portrayed Falun Gong alongside the likes of the Branch Davidians and Japan's doomsday Aum Shinri Kyo cult.
One Falun Gong follower was thrown out and another two prevented from entering when the exhibition opened Saturday. Members vowed Sunday to continue to their demonstration until the event closed.
There was friction inside the exhibition venue as well. A foreign man in attendance was expelled after quarreling with security guards for holding up a piece of paper reading "Communist party = lying, murderers = evil cult."
The man, who spoke with an American accent but declined to identify himself, said he wasn't a follower of Falun Gong but acted "for the sake of what is true and right."
Organizers declined to comment on the incident.
In January, the Hong Kong government was attacked by pro-Beijing forces in the territory for renting out the city hall to an international Falun Gong conference that was attended by over 1,000 people.
Falun Gong has attracted millions of adherents, mostly Chinese, with its combination of slow-motion exercises and philosophy drawn from Taoism, Buddhism and the often-unorthodox ideas of exiled founder Li Hongzhi.
The group is outlawed in China but remains legal in Hong Kong under a separate legal system.