Blast by PKK outside police station kills 8, including 2 cops, injures over 100
Turkish riot police officers use tear gas and arrest demonstrators during a protest against the arrest of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party lawmakers, in Ankara. Pic/AFP
Turkish riot police officers use tear gas and arrest demonstrators during a protest against the arrest of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party lawmakers, in Ankara. Pic/AFP
Diyarbakir: The Turkish police yesterday detained almost a dozen MPs from the country's main pro-Kurdish party, including its two co-leaders, as eight people were killed in a deadly car bombing blamed on Kurdish militants.
Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag appeared before judges in the city of Diyarbakir, who would decide whether to remand them in custody, state-run Anadolu news agency said. As the hearings got underway, a blast by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) struck outside a police station nearby in the Baglar district of Diyarbakir, Turkey's main majority Kurdish city.
Eight people were killed, including two policemen, and over 100 wounded, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced, updating an earlier toll, saying that the PKK had again showed its "ugly face".
The arrest of the HDP co-leaders along with nine other MPs, is a major escalation of a crackdown on leading pro-Kurdish politicians in the wake of the failed military coup in July.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Twitter she was "extremely worried" over the detentions and would call a meeting of EU ambassadors in Ankara.
Demirtas was detained at his home in Diyarbakir in the early hours, while Yuksekdag was detained in Ankara. Yuksekdag was then brought to Diyarbakir where the investigation is centred.
The detention of the 11 MPs appears to be part of a large-scale operation against the HDP, which is the third-largest party in the Turkish parliament with 59 seats and the main political representative of the Kurdish minority.
Demirtas and Yuksekdag were targeted by several probes over the last many months, but this is the first time that either has been detained. NTV television said the pair was accused of spreading propaganda for the PKK, while Anadolu said Demirtas was accused of provoking violence in deadly protests in October 2014.
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