Doctor killed in PKK shooting in southeast Turkey

DİYARBAKIR

A doctor was killed in Turkey’s southeastern province of Diyarbakır late on Aug. 31 in a shooting carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, the district governor has stated.

Militants had blocked the main road between the districts of Kulp and Lice near the village of Yapraklı, in order to conduct identity checks on passing vehicles, Anadolu Agency reported on Sept. 1.

A doctor identified as Abdullah Biroğul was on his way from Kulp to Diyarbakır when he reached the road blockade. Trying to avoid the ID check, Biroğul did not stop his vehicle and was killed after the militants shot at his car with long-barreled weapons.

Security forces were dispatched to the scene and have launched an operation in the region to catch the attackers.

Public servants, particularly police officers and soldiers, generally avoid PKK checks on the roads out of fear of being kidnapped or attacked by the militants. 

In one recent case, a soldier survived after a similar attack on the road between the eastern provinces of Erzincan and Tunceli. On Aug. 29, a noncommissioned officer who was driving in his private car with his wife and child from Erzincan to Tunceli turned around when he realized that PKK militants were stopping the cars on the road, Doğan News Agency reported. 

The unidentified officer drove four kilometers in the opposite direction despite one tire blowing out due to the militants’ shooting. He then left his wife and child in a restaurant by the road and hitched a ride in a passing car to reach Erzincan. The PKK militants later found the officer’s family in the restaurant but ultimately left them alone.