Customs officers abducted by PKK freed

ISTANBUL

Twenty customs officers abducted by outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants on Turkey’s southeastern border have been freed, an official from a human rights group has told Hurriyet. 

A committee formed by members from the Human Rights Association (İHD) and a sub-union of the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) took the kidnapped officers from northern Iraq on the morning of Sept. 8, Human Rights Association (İHD) head Öztürk Türkdoğan said on Sept. 8.

Türkdoğan said the committee headed by Raci Bilici was on the way to Turkey with the customs officers and expected to enter the country through the Habur border crossing.

The move came less than a month after PKK militants kidnapped more than a dozen customs officers in two separate offensives, one in the southeastern province of Hakkari and another in the eastern province of Van.

Ten officers working at the Üzümlü Customs Gate in Hakkari’s Çukurca district were reported missing on Aug. 10, while 10 others on the way back from working at the Kapıköy Customs Gate in Van’s Saray district were kidnapped by PKK militants on Aug. 21.