Turkish police detained 44 people in Istanbul on Friday, October 2, on suspicion of links with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in a continuing crackdown on militants ahead of a snap national election in November, local media reported, according to Reuters.
Fighting between the Turkish military and the outlawed PKK resumed in the country’s mainly Kurdish southeast following the collapse in July of a ceasefire and has reached an intensity unseen since the 1990s. More than 120 security personnel and hundreds of militants have been killed.
Among those detained on Friday were district officials of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), a pro-Kurdish party which the government accuses of having links with the hardline PKK.
An HDP spokesman had no immediate information on the arrests. There was also no comment from Turkish police.
Among the 44 people arrested were union members and former district mayors, Turkish media reported.
In the predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir, security sources said police had imposed a curfew in the Silvan neighborhood where two soldiers were shot dead by suspected PKK militants on Thursday as they left for work.
Reuters. Turkey detains 44 people in raids targeting Kurdish militants: media