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HONG KONG — Hong Kong protesters planned to converge Saturday on the satellite town where an armed mob attacked some of them last weekend, defying a police order and raising the possibility of more confrontations and violent clashes.

The protest in the district, Yuen Long, is in response to an assault there by more than 100 men on demonstrators and others in a train station there Sunday night. The attackers, who were wearing white T-shirts and carrying sticks and metal bars, injured at least 45 people.

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The police were criticized for their slow response, and they did not detain anyone in Yuen Long that night. They have since arrested 12 men in connection with the attack, including some accused of having connections with the gangs known as triads.

Photo by Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung, the No. 2 official in Hong Kong, apologized Friday for the police response. But in an indication of divisions between the police and the government, some officers posted images online late Friday saying that Cheung did not speak for them and that his words undermined their work. A letter from the Junior Police Officers’ Association “severely condemned” Cheung’s comments.