Tension remains high in Van province where 12 youths have been executed in a house-raid in the central Edremit district early this morning.

HDP Van deputy Bedia Özgökçe stated that public prosecutor has ruled a decision to send the bodies of youths to the Forensic Medicine Institution in Malatya province on the grounds of security reasons.

Özgökçe, who is outside the hospital morgue where slain youths are being held, said bodies have been identified and ID details have been conveyed to the public prosecutor.

Özgökçe said all the eyewitnesses they have talked to confirmed that the youths were shot in the head. One of them said police fired a missile into the house where a clash took place for half an hour, and three people who went out of the house had no guns in their hands.

HDP MP for Van described the delivery of the bodies to Malatya as an interesting decision that raised suspicions over the initiation of a judicial investigation into the incident. Özgökçe said it was essential that an independent delegation to take part in the post-mortem examination of the bodies.