UPDATES WITH HEADLINE CHANGE
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AA) – A total of eight people were martyred in terrorist group PKK’s vehicle bomb attack on a police station in the largest city in southeast Turkey on Friday.
“There are eight deaths,” said Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, adding that two police officers and six civilians were martyred, and one terrorist killed.
The prime minister added that 100 people had been injured, 93 of whom had been released from hospitals.
“Seven of our citizens are still under medical care in hospital,” said Yildirim.
Diyarbakir provincial governor’s office had said in a statement that the explosion was caused by the PKK terrorist group.
The blast struck a building used by riot police officers in Baglar, a district in the center of Diyarbakir province, at 7.53 a.m. local time (0453GMT), the governor’s office said in the statement.
The area of the attack is heavily populated and civilians, particularly students, would have been in the vicinity, the statement added.
The explosion damaged nearby cars and premises. Fire engines and ambulances rushed to the area following the detonation and the government imposed a broadcast ban, as is usual in the aftermath of terrorist incidents.
– Detention of HDP deputies
The attack followed the arrests earlier Friday of 11 lawmakers from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), including the party’s two co-leaders Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas and parliamentary group leader Idris Baluken. A 12th HDP lawmaker was arrested later.
Yuksekdag, Demirtas, Baluken and deputy chairman of the party Sirri Sureyya Onder were all sent to court after their investigations had been completed.
The government has accused the HDP of links to the PKK terrorist group. The deputies were arrested for failing to answer a summons to testify as part of a counter-terrorism investigation, a security source said.
The deputies face prosecution under anti-terrorism laws after their parliamentary immunity was lifted earlier this year, along with other lawmakers from Turkey’s main political parties. Unlike deputies from other parties, the HDP lawmakers had refused to appear to testify.
Both the police and security sources spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.
The PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU — resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July last year. Since then, more than 700 security force members have been martyred and around 8,000 PKK terrorists killed or apprehended.
