4 Journalists Detained in Diyarbakır

Click to read the article in Turkish

Evrensel correspondents Hasan Akbaş, Fırat Topal, Serpil Berk and freelance journalist Sertaç Kayar, have been detained after reporting the offensive launched in Diyarbakır’s Sur district by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Evrensel daily’s Editor-in-Chief, Fatih Polat, met with the Diyarbakır Governorate Press Director, Mustafa Çakmak.

Polat, stating an investigation has been launched into the incident, confirmed that the journalists are in custody.

The clothes of the journalists were sent to the criminal examination.

The daily noted that the journalists were detained by the prosecution’s order and the bar will closely follow the incident.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP, Barış Yarkadaş also met with the governorate and expressed that he is following the incident as well.

Five civilians were killed in the attack

The Diyarbakır Governorate has announced that five civilians were killed, five police officers and seven civilians were injured in the attack launched with a bomb-laden vehicle directed at the shuttle, which was carrying the riot squad forces in On Gözlü Köprü position in Sur district in Diyarbakır province.

The civilians killed in the explosion were in a civilian vehicle driving by at the time of the explosion and their bodies were taken to the morgue of the Selahattin Eyyubi State Hospital,  Fırat News Agency (ANF) reported.

It was determined that those who lost their lives in the attack were Behiye Yıldırım (52), her daughters Derya Yıldırım (23) and Demet Yıldırım Aydın (31), and Demet Yıldırım Aydın’s children Oğuz Kaan Aydın (8) and Ceylinaz Aydın (3). (AS/TK)