Turkish police raid HDP district office

ISTANBUL

Six people, including an opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) member have been detained in Istanbul as part of an anti-terrorist operation, police said in a statement on Friday.

Turkish police’s anti-terrorism unit conducted simultaneous raids at several addresses in the province, including at HDP's Beyoglu bureau.

Rukiye Demir, HDP’s co-chair of Beyoglu district bureau, was detained in the operation, police said.

According to police, they received intelligence that a murder weapon used in an attack on a civilian in June last year was hidden inside the HDP building. The murder was blamed on the PKK terrorist organization.

Organizational documents were also seized during the operation, police said.

Demir’s lawyer Levent Piskin told the media that the killing had no link with HDP.

The party also reacted against the police raid on its official Twitter account.

The HDP claimed the operation was “unlawful”, adding that they would not be silenced in the face of such pressures.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu recently floated the idea of lifting the parliamentary immunity of HDP deputies because of its alleged support for terrorism. The call was made with the backing of another opposition party, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).