35 Kurds arrested in region with suspected links to urban wing of separatist Kurdish ’rebels’

35 Kurds were arrested Monday in the region with suspected links to urban wing of the 'separatist Kurdish rebels', a few hours after an off-duty soldier died after being shot in southeast Turkey

According to security sources, 35 Kurds including local politicians and mayors were arrested on Monday in Hakkari due to suspected links to the so-called "urban wing" of separatist Kurdish militants. The detainees include two deputy mayors of Hakkari and the local leader of Turkey's main Kurdish movement Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) there, the sources said.

The detainments came amid a wave of arrests in many southeast cities in an ongoing investigation into the Kurdistan Associations Union (KCK), which prosecutors describe as a terrorist group that acts as the urban extension of the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

A similar case is ongoing in Diyarbakir province against some 150 suspects. The suspects include the mayor of Diyarbakir, the regional capital of Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast and other prominent Kurds.

Meanwhile, Anatolia news agency reported that two off-duty sergeants, wearing civilian clothes, were shot on Sunday by unidentified gunmen in the town of Yuksekova in Hakkari province, with one dying of his wounds in hospital on Monday. The other soldier was still under treatment in hospital, Anatolia said. The sergeants were walking in the centre of the town, when they were shot from behind, Anatolia said.