Turkey detains over 100 pro-Kurdish party officials: media

Turkish police detained more than 100 pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) officials on Monday over alleged links to Kurdish militants in a country-wide operation, state media reported.


The early-morning raids saw 118 HDP officials rounded up on suspicion of belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or producing propaganda for the group, state news agency Anadolu said.

Part of an anti-terror probe, the sweeping arrest operation came after weekend attacks killed 44 people in Istanbul, mostly police, which were claimed by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as a radical offshoot of the PKK.

According to Anadolu, 20 officials in Istanbul -- including the HDP's provincial head in the city, Aysel Guzel -- were taken into custody while another 17 were detained in the Turkish capital, among them the party's Ankara chief Ibrahim Binici.

The other detentions took place in the southern provinces of Adana and Mersin, Manisa in western Turkey as well as Sanliurfa in the country's restive southeast.
 [i24news.tv/AFP]
12/12/16
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