HDP campaign bus driver shot dead in eastern Turkey

ISTANBUL

DHA Photo

A campaign bus of the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey’s eastern province of Bingöl was raked with bullets by unknown attackers on June 3. The body of driver Hamdullah Öğe was later recovered twenty-five meters from the bus. 

The bus was found raked with bullets and abandoned, five kilometers from Bingöl’s Karlıova district, on the night of June 3.  
Öğe’s body could only be discovered once the gendarmerie was dispatched to conduct body search within the perimeters of the crime scene. 

Bingöl governorate made a statement on the attack, saying an extensive search operation has been launched to apprehend the attackers.

“Hamdullah Öğe, a resident of Karlıova district, was attacked around 9.30 p.m. while he was driving back to his village with his bus, which the HDP has rented. His bus was ranked by unidentified armed persons and he was found dead twenty-five meters from the vehicle,” the statement said. 

“Our security forces have launched an extensive search operation to catch the assailants and shed light on this atrocious attack,” it stated. 

It remains to be seen whether the driver Hamdullah Öğe or the HDP was the prime target of the attack.

The HDP has been exposed to over fifty attacks across the country over the course of a month on the lead up to the June 7 elections, according to the Dicle News Agency.