DIYARBAKIR (Turkey): Turkish police on Sunday used tear gas to disperse hundreds of Kurds demonstrating here in favour of separatist rebels fighting the government, a correspondent said.

About 40,000 people attended a rally organised by the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) to denounce legal action seeking the group's closure.

The rally in Diyarbakir, the largest city of the mainly Kurdish southeast, turned ugly when about 1,000 protesters marched towards the office of a nationalist opposition party and hurled stones at the building and security forces. Police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and detained several people.

Demonstrators shouted slogans in favour of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, brandishing portraits of the rebel chief and flags of green, yellow and red, the traditional Kurdish colours.

“The youth are Apo's guards,” the participants chanted at the rally, using Ocalan's nickname. “The PKK is the people, the people are here,” they shouted. Turkey's chief prosecutor last week asked the Constitutional Court to outlaw the DTP, arguing that the party, through its links with the PKK, had become threat to the country's unity.—AFP.