Turkey breaks up Kurdish protest

Turkish riot police broke up a rally Sunday by Kurdish demonstrators protesting the detention of large numbers of people by the government, officials said. A number of people were injured in the province of Diyarbakir at the rally, which had been declared illegal by the governor's office last week due to concerns Kurdish militants would try to provoke an incident. The rally was organized by the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, to protest large-scale detentions in the so-called Kurdistan Communities Union investigation. The Hurriyet Daily News said the governor's office refused to allow the event after it said it had received intelligence that militants planned to cause trouble. About 10,000 well-equipped police officers from across Turkey were deployed around Diyarbakir prior to Sunday. Hurriyet said squads of police shooed people out of public parks, broke up smaller groups of demonstrators, and also blocked a group of senior BDP leaders who were heading to the town square in the city of Diyarbakir.