BDP criticizes PKK school burnings

ANKARA / KAHRAMANMARAŞ

The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) has strongly criticized the recent Molotov cocktail attacks on schools in the southeastern provinces, which have been associated with supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The search for human rights should be kept within a democratic framework and school-burning cannot be considered within this framework, BDP Group Deputy Chair İdris Baluken said, adding that the party did not approve of the attacks.

BDP deputy Murat Bozlak also said that such activities should be stopped immediately, while another BDP deputy, Altan Tan, described the attacks as “terrorist activity” and said the party “could not approve of them on any account.”

Three PKK militants killed in southeast

A number of masked people attacked a school in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır with Molotov cocktails and homemade bombs on Oct. 9, while eight others in the southeastern province of Şırnak’s İdil district did the same. One student and two teachers were injured in the Diyarbakır attack, while two students were injured in İdil.

Meanwhile, the governorship of the southeastern province of Kahramanmaraş has announced that three terrorists have been killed in a clash in the province’s Pazarcık district. According to a written statement from the governor’s office, four members of the PKK were caught while preparing a terrorist attack on Oct. 11, Anatolia news agency has reported. In the clash between the militants and the police, three militants were killed but one escaped. The search for the runaway militant is continuing, the statement said.

In the Dağlıca region of the Yüksekova district in the southeastern province of Hakkari security forces have found and destroyed 55 kilograms of homemade explosives located under an air hole by the side of a street. Six PKK shelters were also discovered on the same route. Meanwhile, the indictment by the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor for six suspects for contributing to a terrorist plot, together with members of PKK, has revealed details of a planned assassination.