BFF-33 Turkey police round up dozens over alleged PKK links

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TURKEY-KURDS-UNREST

Turkey police round up dozens over alleged PKK links

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Turkish police detained dozens
of people over alleged links to Kurdish militants in an operation carried out
in nine cities including Kurdish-majority Diyarbakir, the local prosecutor’s
office said Tuesday.

The police detained 90 out of 151 suspects they were seeking during the
raids carried out at 183 addresses, and seized organisational documents and
digital materials, the chief prosecutor’s office in Diyarbakir said in a
statement.

The suspects were accused of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK), designated as a terror group by Turkey and its Western allies.

The PKK is regularly targeted in security forces raids.

Clashes between Turkish security forces and the PKK resumed after a
fragile two-year ceasefire collapsed in 2015.

The PKK’s armed struggle with the Turkish government has killed more than
40,000 people since 1984.

Last week, eight Turkish soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive
device in southeastern Turkey in an attack which the government blamed on the
PKK.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1432 hrs