DIYARBAKIR: Four people were killed on Tuesday, including the leader of an Islamist charity, in clashes between rival Kurdish groups in Diyarbakir, adding to tensions in Turkey’s largest Kurdish-populated city days after legislative elections.

Aytac Baran, the leader of the Ihya-Der charity group, was shot dead by unknown gunmen outside his home in Diyarbakir, prompting a gunfight that left three others dead and four injured, including three journalists, hospital sources said.

Sympathisers of the group fired shots into the air and clashed with supporters of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) who they clai­med were behind the attack.

But the HDP however strongly condemned the attack in a statement, calling for a thorough investigation to arrest the suspects and bring them to justice.

Baran had been threatened by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) just before his assassination, his lawyer said in a statement quoted by the Turkish media.

Turkish media reports said two of the injured journalists were working for the DHA news agency and one for the IHA news agency.

Ihya-Der is linked to Islamist group Huda-Par, known to be the political exte­ nsion of Turkish Hezbollah, a Kurdish Sunni Islamist militant organisation.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2015

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