Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam on Tuesday said the extradition bill which sparked the country’s biggest political crisis in decades was dead, describing the government’s work on the bill as a total failure.

“So I reiterate here, there is no such plan, the bill is dead,” Lam told a news conference.

However, her attempt to restore order in the Asian financial hub and cling to her job did not satisfy many protesters who demanded that she completely withdrew the bill and accused her of playing word games by declaring the bill dead.

The demonstrators also called for Lam to resign as Hong Kong’s Chief Executive  to give way for an independent investigation into police actions against protesters and for the government to abandon the description of a violent protest on June 12 as a riot.

Chief Executives of Hong Kong are selected by a small committee of pro-establishment figures stacked in Beijing’s favour and formally appointed by China’s central government.

The bill which would have made it possible for people in Hong Kong to be sent to mainland China to face trial in courts controlled by the ruling Communist Party sparked huge and at times violent street protests which plunged the former British colony into turmoil.

In mid-June, Lam responded to the protests which drew hundreds of thousands of people into the streets by suspending the bill.