11 PKK members caught over planting explosive devices in mall, forest

ANKARA

Security forces have apprehended 11 PKK members who placed an explosive device in a shopping mall and an urban forest area in Istanbul.

After a bag carried by an individual at a mall in Istanbul’s Bayrampaşa district suddenly caught fire, the police were dispatched to the scene to examine the bag.

When it was found out that the bag contained an improvised explosive device, D.B., who carried the bag, and S.A., who accompanied him at the mall, were detained.

During interrogation, the two said that they had watched videos of masked members of the terror group together with another PKK member they knew under the code name “Rodem.”

The two terrorists also stated that they were in contact with a person abroad who send money to them to buy some materials for making explosives.

They confessed that the other PKK members prepared the explosive device and gave it to them, saying when they came to drop it off at one of the stores in the shopping mall, the explosive detonated for an unknown reason.

In a subsequent raid on their house in the Bahçelievler district, six more members of the terrorist organization were captured, as the police seized a significant amount of explosive materials used in bomb-making.

The police also determined that the terrorists detained in the Bahçelievler operation had left devices in Sultangazi Urban Forest with the intent to start a fire.

During the searches, three boxes containing explosive materials were seized before they exploded.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK - listed as a terrorist organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the EU - has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.