Ten Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Kurdistan Women’s Liberation Party (PAJK) prisoners who have been on indefinite hunger strike in Silivri prison for fourteen days were attacked by gendarmeries and then put in individual cells on Tuesday. Four other prisoners who wanted to protest against the individual cell punishment were also put in individual cells.

Kurdish prisoners in 13 jails started an indefinite hunger strike on 12 September in protest against the isolation imposed on Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan for over 400 days now. The action was first started in Diyarbakýr E, Diyarbakýr D, Bolu, Siirt, Kandýra 1 and Kandýra 2 prisons. But in the following days prisoners from other jails have joined the protest: Bakýrköy, Edirne, Erzurum, Rize, Midyat, Silivri and Mardin.

According to lawyer Sinan Zincir who met his clients in Silivri prison after the incident, the prison administration threatened strikers “to put in individual cells if they continued the hunger strike”.

One prisoner was injured on arm and one other on the head during the gendarmerie attack.

Lawyer Zincir added that a press conference will be held at Human Rights Association (IHD) Istanbul Office on Thursday in protest against the attack on prisoners.