JINHA

ŞIRNEX - In the Kurdish town of Silopi, police opened fire on women mourners of a police violence victim, trapping them for several hours.

Mehtet Hıdır Tanboğa was among the three killed in the Kurdish town of Silopi in a police assault on Friday. Police had responded to trenches dug in neighborhoods to prevent raids by opening fire on civilians in the Zap neighborhood.

Yesterday, an explosion killed four police officers on a main street in the Zap neighborhood. Police then launched an indiscriminate assault on the neighborhood, including the site set up for visitors to express condolences to the family of Mehtet Hıdır Tanboğa. Hundreds of women had gathered to express their condolences and mourn Mehmet Hıdır when police started firing on the mourners, recalled the mother of the deceased, Zeynep Tanboğa.

"They opened fire with anti-aircraft guns," she said. The crowd fled inside the apartment building, where the heavy fire damaged the family's possessions. "We told them we were accepting condolences [from the visitors]; they said, 'if you step outside, we'll kill you.' We were stuck in the house for three, four hours. They opened fire on anyone who tried to step outside.

"This is not something Muslims would do," said Zeynep. "This is what they see us as worthy of."

(pk-ma/gc/cm)