FO says Islamabad stands with Ankara in fight against terrorism
ANKARA – Two attackers detonated a bomb in front of Turkish government buildings in Ankara on Sunday, leaving both of them dead and two police officers wounded, and a Kurdish militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. Authorities called it the first terrorist attack in the capital in years.
CCTV footage showed a vehicle pulling up to the Interior Ministry’s main gate and one of its occupants quickly walking toward the building before being engulfed in an explosion, while the other remains on the street.
The blast killed one of the attackers and authorities “neutralised”, or killed, the other, the interior minister said of the incident that rattled a central district that is home to ministerial buildings and nearby parliament. In a speech at the opening of a new parliamentary session hours later, President Tayyip Erdogan called the morning attack “the latest attempt” to inflict terror on Turks.
“Those who threaten the peace and security of citizens have not achieved their goals and never will,” he said. The ANF News website, which is close to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, said a group called the ‘Immortals Battalion’ had carried out the attack, citing a PKK statement.
The statement described the bombing as a ‘suicide attack’ planned to coincide with the opening of parliament and carried out by “a team of ours linked to our Immortals Battalion”. A senior Turkish official told media the attackers had hijacked the vehicle and killed its driver in Kayseri, a city 260 km (161 miles) southeast of Ankara, before carrying out the attack. One of the injured officers suffered shrapnel injuries, he added.
“Two terrorists came with a light commercial vehicle in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of our Ministry of Internal Affairs and carried out a bomb attack,” Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister, said on social media platform X.
Meanwhile, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Sunday strongly condemned the dastardly terrorist attack in Ankara and expressed solidarity with Turkiye. “Pakistan strongly condemns the dastardly terrorist attack in Ankara today. We stand in complete solidarity with our Turkish brothers and sisters in the fight against the scourge of terrorism. I have no doubt that under the dynamic leadership of my brother (President Recep Tayyip Erdogan), the resolute Turkish nation will emerge ever stronger from this challenge,” PM Kakar wrote on his X handle.
Separately, in a press release shared by PM Office Media Wing, the Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said, “Pakistan resolutely stands with Turkey in its fight against the scourge of terrorism…. The Turkish nation will defeat this menace and emerge ever stronger.”
Source:https://www.nation.com.pk/02-Oct-2023/terrorists-carry-out-attack-in-ankara
