Two villagers from Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish Hakkari province were allegedly tortured for hours by a group of soldiers, the Mesopotamia news agency reported on Friday.
Ramazan Aktaş and Nasır Taş, two shepherds from Hakkari’s Yufkalı village, were tending their sheep when soldiers from a nearby military outpost stopped them.
According to Taş, the soldiers asked them the whereabouts of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants, could not get an answer and consequently started to beat them with batons and rifle butts until the shepherds passed out.
He also said one of the soldiers fired a gun for four times near his head.
“When the women came to milk the sheep, they couldn’t find us. Then they started to look around. After a while, they found us unconscious and told other villagers to bring us to a hospital,” Taş said.
While Aktaş was soon discharged from the hospital, Taş has been kept for observation.
Aktaş and Taş obtained a report from the hospital indicating that they had been beaten in order to file a criminal complaint with a court.