IS bombing in Diyarbakir targeted detained Kurdish lawmakers: HDP

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) on Saturday said the target of the Islamic State (IS)-claimed bombing that killed 11 and wounded more than 100 in central Diyarbakir were its detained lawmakers.

An online press release on the HDP website revealed its co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas as well as the MPs Gulser Yildirim, Nursel Aydogan, Sirri Sureyya Önder, and Ziya Pir were under detention at the Turkish police station two hours before the 7:53 a.m. attack that rocked Baglar district.

Recai Altay, a local co-chair of HDP’s sister party Democratic Regions Party (DBP) who the Turkish police had arrested last month alongside 54 politicians, was among the nine civilians killed in the blast, continued the statement.

Calling for a thorough investigation of the attack, the HDP accused the Governor’s Office in Diyarbakir of “deceiving the public and openly lying.”

Shortly after the bombing, the Governor’s office claimed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) members had taken responsibility for the violence.

On Saturday morning, the IS, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had earlier this week urged attacks on Turkey, claimed the blast.

In response, the Turkish Governorate in Diyarbakir released a second press release saying the IS claim also carried by Reuters was false.

The Governorate insisted the attack was conducted by PKK members whose “wireless communication the authorities tapped.”

“It is important that our citizens listen to official statements and do not heed news stories that aim to create false impressions,” said the release.

A detained lawmaker who was later released, MP Pir of Diyarbakir, took to Twitter to express his dismay at the Turkish officials, tweeting that he, Yuksekdag, and Onder “escaped death by a hair’s breadth.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany