Opposition MP inquires about police officer caught with 52kg of explosives

Duvar English

Turkey Labor Party (TİP) MP Ahmet Şık has tabled a question in parliament about a police officer caught in the southeastern border province of Hakkari with 52.5 kilograms of explosives.

In an 18-question inquiry submitted in parliament and addressed to Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, Şık asked who the explosives were being carried to and why the buyer was not caught.

Police officers from the Hakkari provincial police directorate on March 21 stopped the car which the police officer, identified only by the initials A.K. and who is stationed in Istanbul, was driving just outside Yüksekova district.

The police found 133 pieces of 52 kilograms and 500 grams of explosives in the spare wheel carrier of the car.

Soylu said on a program on March 21 that the police officer was heading towards Istanbul and received the explosives through northern Iraq.

The officer was previously suspended from work for theft and was reinstated after a court ruling, he said.

“Then we sent him somewhere else and he later went elsewhere in Istanbul. He is a very problematic guy. He stole cables,” he added.

In his 18-question inquiry, Şık asked how the police officer was reinstated despite his past record of theft.

He also asked where the officer was previously stationed and about his personal assets and whether there was any suspicious increase in his wealth.

Şık questioned if claims that the officer would be receiving 400,000 Turkish Liras for carrying the explosives were true.

He also asked where and against who the explosives were going to be used, while adding whether there was a feud between separate groups within the government and if a certain group in the state foiled another group’s plans to carry out a “bloody plot.”