A man has been arrested for posing as a police officer to incite disruptive behaviors among participants of a street gathering in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday, following the captures of three other men who attempted a similar stunt the day before.

Tran Quoc Tuan, 23, was apprehended on Sunday while donning a police vest and helmet and carrying a counterfeit police ID, according to Ho Chi Minh City police.

He was among participants of a street gathering in the southern Vietnamese city the same morning, whom police say “displayed behaviors disruptive to public order”.

Some people were questioned and released, while Tuan is still kept in detention for further investigation into his motive behind disguising as law enforcement.

On Saturday, police arrested three people attempting a similar stunt in downtown Ho Chi Minh City. It is not clear whether the men are linked.

The municipal police also discredited the authenticity of clips posted on social media showing huge crowds of people occupying city streets and causing traffic congestion on Sunday.

The footage had been filmed during old events and re-uploaded with the purpose of distorting the truth and instigating public disorder in the city, they say.

Streets in downtown Ho Chi Minh City and near its Tan Son Nhat International Airport were not crowded on Sunday morning, as police could be seen guarding key locations to maintain order.

Since marches began last Sunday, seven people have been prosecuted in the southern metropolis for behaviors including disrupting public security and order, acting against on-duty officers, and destroying properties, according to the police.

People carrying signs and banners gather at a park near the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City to protest a draft law on June 10, 2017. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Thousands took to the streets in Ho Chi Minh City and other parts of the country last Sunday to protest a draft law which allowed potential foreign investors to lease land for up to 99 years in Vietnam’s new special economic zones.

The zones – Phu Quoc, Van Don, and Bac Van Phong – are to be located in Kien Giang, Quang Ninh and Khanh Hoa Provinces in southern, northern and south-central Vietnam, respectively.

Since then, the country’s lawmaking National Assembly has agreed to delay consideration of the bill until October, when the government is expected to unveil an updated version of the legislation without the 99-year lease period.

Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, on Sunday called for the people to remain calm and have “complete faith in the leadership of the Party and the government” as he met constituents in Hanoi.

“Nobody is so naïve that they would offer their motherland to foreigners,” he said, addressing concerns that the long lease term would pose a threat to national security.

“Every conspiracy to sabotage must be annihilated,” Trong stressed.

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