ANKARA
The police have arrested 16 suspects for the murders of four people killed on Oct. 5, during countrywide pro-Kurdistan Workers' Party protests, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced Wednesday.
Davutoglu, speaking in the province of Bursa where he was attending a meeting on Turkey's automotive exports, said the minister of interior had informed him of the arrests.
Attackers, reportedly armed with machetes and guns on Oct. 5 killed four friends, 16-year-old Yasin Boru, 26-year-old Hakan Gokgoz, Huseyin Dakak, 19, and Riyat Gunes in southeastern Diyarbakir province. Their bodies were mutilated by the attackers afterwards.
The chief public prosecutor's office of Diyarbakir province confirmed the arrests and said that five more were pending.
The October protests erupted when the Syrian border town of Kobani came under attack by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants and it was alleged that the Turkish government was not doing enough to help the mostly Kurdish population there.
www.aa.com.tr/en
