The district head of the Justice and Development Party's (AKP) Mazgirt branch in Turkey's eastern province of Tunceli was kidnapped by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Aug. 29, Dogan News Agency has reported. A group of PKK militants hijacked a road near the Mazgirt district of Tunceli and started conducting ID checks, where they came across the head of the AKP in Mazgirt, Süleyman Canpolat, along with the village headman of Goktepe, Gökhan Sonar. PKK members set the car on fire after pulling Canpolat and Sonar out of the car, taking Canpolat while setting Sonar free. The militants allegedly told Canpolat that they had warned him several times but as he had continued on conducting the post of AKP district head, they were going to "take him with them." Speaking to state-run Anadolu Agency, the provincial head of AKP's Tunceli branch, Erkan Eroglu, confirmed the abduction of Canpolat, saying that they had learned the news from the security forces. Meanwhile, two main roads in Tunceli have been closed for three days due to security reasons, Cihan News Agency reported Aug. 30. Two separate roads connecting Tunceli to the neighboring province of Erzincan and Tunceli's district of Ovacık have been closed in order to conduct operations in the region against members of terrorist organizations, a decision made by the Tunceli governorate. PKK members have hijacked the two roads and have been conducting ID checks for a while, diminishing the security of the roads.
