PKK militants hold child hostage in exchange of shopping list

İSKENDERUN

Militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) recently took a child hostage in order to force his family to shop for them, the Turkish military said in a statement Sept.9. DHA photo

Militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) recently took a child hostage in order to force his family to shop for them, the Turkish military said in a statement Sept.9.

According to a written statement published on the official website of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), four PKK militants stopped a car on Sept. 7 near the İskenderun district of the southern province of Hatay. The car belonged to A.K. and his wife İ.N.K., and son M.K. was also in the car.

The militants then handed the parents a shopping list and 1,000 Turkish Liras, and told them to bring the materials back to save their son. The parents did the shopping and handed the material to the militants at around 3 p.m. and their son was then delivered, the statement said.

The TSK statement listed the material demanded by the militants as follows: “100 kilograms of flour, 25 kilograms of bulgur, 25 kilograms of rice, 25 kilograms of pasta, five kilograms of pepperoni, one kilogram of tobacco, five kilograms of tomato, four packages of salt, 10 kilograms of olive, nine kilograms of cheese, one pair of snickers, five kilograms of olive oil, one saw, one adze, one package of gum, one kilogram of garlic, one kilogram of tea, 50 breads and five kilograms of chocolate.”

Two teams of special forces conducted operations in the area after the gendarmerie was informed about the incident, but could not find any sign of the militants, the statement added.