Ankarka, Turkey- Security forces on Tuesday detained a mayor in eastern Turkey for suspected ties to Islamist radicals, the state-run Anatolian news agency said.
Rifat Geylani, mayor of the town of Semdinli in southeastern Hakkari province, was arrested along with two other men, Anatolian said. Police also confiscated videotapes and publications in a raid on Geylani's home.
Officials accuse Hizbullah, a shadowy organisation unrelated to the Lebanon-based group of the same name, of killing more than 150 people and of plotting the violent overthrow of Turkey's secular order.
The news agency said Geylani belonged to the main opposition Islamist Virtue Party, which faces possible closure on charges it aims to replace Turkey's constitution with Sharia law.
Turkey is overwhelmingly Muslim, but strictly separates state and religion.
In a separate operation, the authorities detained four suspected members of a radical Islamist group in the southern coastal city of Mersin, Anatolian said. Police were not immediately available for comment.
The authorities began a crackdown on Hizbullah in 1999, and 13 alleged leaders now face the death penalty on murder charges.
The group emerged in the late 1980s in southeastern Turkey during fighting between government forces and Kurdish separatist rebels.
Most of Hizbullah's victims were rebel sympathisers, leading to charges that the state at least tacitly supported Hizbullah. Ankara vehemently denies such allegations.
10:07 02-20-01
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