Turkish security forces launch extensive operation to rescue teacher abducted by PKK

TUNCELİ

Security forces launched an extensive operation to save a teacher abducted last month by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on a highway between the eastern provinces of Tunceli and Erzincan, Doğan News Agency reported on July 11.

The 23-year-old teacher, Necmettin Yılmaz, was reportedly driving on the Tunceli-Erzincan highway en route to the Black Sea province of Gümüşhane for a vacation on June 16 when a group of PKK militants stopped his car. After he refused to meet the militants’ demands, the group reportedly opened fire and abducted Yılmaz, after which they set his car alight.

The security forces said the operation decision was taken after locating a crowded group of PKK members in the region based on the seized transmitter records well as the drone surveillance. The operation was assisted by helicopters and carried out by a special team from the 2nd Battalion Gendarmerie post. 

The PKK targets were targeted with fire from the cobra helicopters as well as howitzers, and the gendarmerie units are reported to be continuing their search works in the region and destroying bomb traps set up by the group. 

The Tunceli Governor’s Office made an announcement regarding 100-kilogram hand-made explosives seized in the province’s Nazımiye district on July 10. 

The statement said the provincial gendarmerie command had destroyed the explosives at the scene with the order of the Tunceli Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.