We would like to inform you regarding the attack that took place yesterday, Friday, November 4th 2016 in Diyarbakir:
The location that was attacked by ISIS at around 8:00 am yesterday morning was a police school, which has been used for more than ten years as an additional service building by the Diyarbakır General Directorate of Police. It is located in the center of Bağlar province and consists of a a complex of several units that houses also the riot police directorate.
Our Co-Chairs Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş as well as our deputies Gülser Yıldırım, Nursel Aydoğan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder and Ziya Pir, who were taken from their homes in Diyarbakır in custody, were kept in this building complex before being taken to court.
This complex contains also a gym, which was used as facility during the detention of our various HDP and BDP co-presidents and party members of Diyarbakir province and its counties. As will be remembered, Demirtaş had held a press conference on October 19th, 2016 in our Diyarbakır offices with regard to these detentions. In yesterday`s attack, the DBP (Democratic Regions Party) co-president of the county Cüngüş, Recai Altay, who was also held custody in this building, lost his life.
About two hours before yesterday`s attack at 08:00 am in the morning, our Co-Chairman Selahattin Demirtaş and our Diyarbakir deputy Ziya Pir had been held here before they were taken to court.
At the time of the bombing, our Co-Chairwoman Figen Yüksekdağ and our Ankara deputy Sırrı Süreyya Önder were still being held in that very building complex.
As it has been reported in press, a minibus containing the bomb had a collision with a commercial taxi on the road. Because the minibus did not stop and continued on the road after the accident, the taxi chased him and cut him off. When the taxi driver descended from his vehicle, he saw that there was a bomb in the minibus. According to witness accounts, he shouted "There is a bomb" just when the explosion happened. Thus, the minibus loaded with the bomb exploded before it could reach its actual destination. If the commercial taxi and the minibus had not collided, the minibus with the bomb would have reached its target.
Despite knowing all of these facts, the Diyarbakır Governor's Office has been misleading the public with fraudulent information. In addition, a number of 'media' organs continue to target our party and our co-chairs who were arrested along with our deputies in conjunction with this attack carried out by ISIS.
We resolutely demand the full disclosure of all facts about this bomb attack which was clearly planned to be more destructive, yet failed its target.
HDP Press Office
November 5, 2016