ANKARA — Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says two explosions at a Kurdish party rally which killed two people just days before key parliamentary elections were acts of "sabotage and provocation." Turkey holds parliamentary elections on Sunday in which the Kurdish votes will be crucial in determining whether the ruling party gets the supermajority it seeks. Officials have not confirmed whether the blasts at the People's Democratic Party rally Friday was caused by bombs. But the private Dogan news agency, without citing sources, said Saturday that one of the explosions was caused by explosives placed in a gas cylinder. Davutoglu did not point to anyone as responsible for the incident. A prosecutor said Friday that about 100 people were injured, most of them from the panic and a stampede following the blasts. A bomb made from a gas cylinder packed with ball bearings caused one of the deadly blasts at a Kurdish election rally, Turkish security sources said on Saturday, a day after the attack killed two and wounded more than 100. Two blasts, which President Tayyip Erdogan described as a “provocation” designed to undermine peace ahead of Sunday's parliamentary election, tore through a rally where thousands had gathered in support of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. Ball bearings, nails and other metal parts from the device were gathered as evidence under the supervision of prosecutors but no suspects have been identified, security sources told Reuters. Security camera footage was being analysed, the chief prosecutor in Diyarbakir said. Tensions have run high in Turkey as the HDP aims to overcome a 10 percent vote threshold to enter parliament. Some opinion polls show it could seize enough seats to deprive the long-ruling AK Party of the majority it has enjoyed since sweeping to power in 2002. Party leaders were due to hold their final rallies on Saturday. In a television interview late on Friday, Erdogan said security would be tightened after the blasts. “The incident has to me seriously cast a shadow over the election. We will hold the election one way or another. We are trying to hold this election in the best possible conditions, increasing all security measures,” he told ATV. — Agencies
