HDP rally bomb attack suspect arrested in Turkey's southeast

DİYARBAKIR – Doğan News Agency

AFP Photo

A suspect who was detained on allegations of perpetrating a twin bomb attack on June 5 at a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) rally in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır was arrested on June 10.

Three people were killed as a result of the bombings, while hundreds more were injured. Şeyhmuz Kaçan, 34, and Necati Kurul, 47, died on the night of the bombings, while 17-year-old Ciwan Arslan succumbed to his injuries on June 8. 

The suspect, O.G., was caught on June 6 in the southeastern province of Gaziantep and brought to Diyarbakır on June 7 after he was identified by security cameras. 

The Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a written statement that O.G. was arrested and sent to the prison as he was accused of intentional killing and being a member of a terror organization. 

The explosion in Diyarbakır was the second bombing incident targeted at the HDP.

On May 18, bombs exploded at two local HDP headquarters in Adana and Mersin. Hidden in a cargo parcel and a gift-wrapped flower pot, the two bombs injured four people and caused damage to the building.

More casualties were possibly avoided, as party officials in Mersin had suspected the pot contained a hidden wiretapping device before deciding to remove it from the room and put it on a terrace. In Adana, on the other hand, the bomb exploded in the filing cabinet of the party’s provincial head, injuring him and two others.

A suspect of the twin bombings at the HDP branches had been previously detained in 2007 for his links to Turkey’s outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), the Turkish Interior Ministry said in a written statement on May 21, but HDP officials and the far-left group discounted the possibility that the organization was responsible for the attacks.