More than 1,000 people staged a protest at Hong Kong airport Sunday over an alleged breach of avaiation safety rules involving the baggage of the city leader’s daughter.

It was the latest controversy to hit Beijing-backed Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying since he took office in 2012 in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. His popularity ratings are currently low.

Protesters – including cabin crew, pilots and activists – staged a sit-in at Chek Lap Kok airport’s arrival hall, alleging special treatment for Leung’s family.

They said they were annoyed by an apparent special arrangement which helped 23-year-old Leung Chung-yan after she accidentally left her hand baggage at the check-in counter last month.

Airport staff brought it to her in the restricted zone.

Local media have reported that the chief executive made a phone call to relevant officers before the bag was delivered to the 23-year-old.

C.Y. Leung has admitted making a call but denied pressuring staff.

Protesters alleged that Leung misused his power and said the incident could jeopardise aviation safety.

“We are strongly against privileges. We are stressed and annoyed. We cannot stay silent,” Carol Ng, of the Hong Kong Cabin Crew Federation, one of the protest organisers, told AFP.

Slogan-shouting protesters held banners reading “No compromise on professionalism” and “The sky with 100 percent safety”.

They ended the three-hour demonstration by marching around the busy airport terminal as curious travellers recorded the scene with smartphones.

Hong Kong was handed over by Britain to China in 1997 under a “One country, two systems” arrangement which guarantees its freedoms for 50 years. But there are fears such freedoms are being eroded due to the increasing behind-the-scenes influence of Beijing.

A government spokesman said the bag of Leung’s daughter had undergone a thorough security check and aviation safety was not affected by the incident.

As with previous leaders since 1997 Leung was picked by an electoral committee dominated by pro-Beijing elites. Since then, he has faced several controversies.

In 2012 he was embroiled in a row stemming from illegal structures at his luxury home.

In 2014 the former surveyor was accused of taking a $7 million payment from an Australian company arising from his business before he became the city’s leader.

He denied any wrongdoing.

Stone-throwing protesters clashed with police firing tear gas in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state on Sunday, the latest caste violence over demands for preferential treatment for jobs and university places.

Police also fired water cannon when violence flared after a rally in the Gujarat state town of Mehsana by thousands of members of the Patidar, or Patel, caste.

Television footage showed police armed with sticks known as lathis chasing crowds through the streets after demonstrators tried to march to a local jail where several caste leaders were being held.

Some 25 protesters were arrested and authorities slapped a curfew on the town and blocked mobile Internet access to try to calm the situation, Mehsana district collector Lochan Sahera said.

“After the rally the Patidars who had gathered in their thousands started marching towards the district jail and when the police tried to stop them, they pelted stones at them,” Sahera told AFP.

Protesters told media they were hit by police with sticks after taking part in a peaceful rally.

Rioting by Patidar members erupted last year in Gujarat over the same issue, leaving at least 10 people dead in the worst violence to hit the state for more than a decade.

The Patidars are one of the western state’s most affluent communities, but they say they are struggling to compete with less privileged castes for jobs.

Local leaders had organised Sunday’s rally to press their demands for changes to the policy by the Gujarat state government and for the release of local leaders.

Hardik Patel, a young firebrand Patidar leader, remains in prison over last year’s violence.

Clashes also took place in the neighbouring city of Surat on Sunday, forcing authorities to shut down mobile Internet access, police said.

India sets aside a proportion of government jobs and university places for some castes under measures intended to bring victims of the worst discrimination into the mainstream.

But the policy causes deep resentment among other communities, who say it freezes them out.

In February in the northern state of Haryana about 30 people were killed in clashes between police and members of the dominant rural Jat caste over similar demands.

Gujarat director general of police P.P. Pandey told AFP that extra police have been deployed in Mehsana but that the situation was now under control.