Hong Kong, Sep 2 (TIWN) Thousands of defiant school students across Hong Kong skipped classes on Monday, using the first day of the new academic year to add their voices to anti-government protests which has fuelled months of unrest in the city.

Thousands of them were expected to head to the city centre for a rally against the now-shelved extradition bill. Strike-affected schools included the alma maters of the city’s embattled leader and the chief of its beleaguered police force. The school boycott, co-organised by localist party Demosisto, was part of a broader anti-government campaign triggered by the bill, which would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong lacks an extradition deal, including mainland China.