Istanbul police have warned that a far-left underground group may carry out violent attacks against public buildings and officials to protest a government plan to reform unruly prisons, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.
The written warning was issued upon intelligence that the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) had recently ordered members to use violence in a bid to stop the prison reform which aims to replace existing crowded dormitories with smaller cells.
It said that DHKP-C militants might attack politicians, security forces, businessmen and jurists as well as public and political party buildings throughout the country.
The warning coincided with the detention of two-suspected DHKP-C members accused of plotting bomb attacks against the prison reform in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest city.
DHKP-C, mainly active in Turkey's urban centers, aims to spark a revolution among the working classes and is blamed for a number of violent acts, including the murders of a former minister and several retired generals.
The Turkish government is determined to go ahead with its prison reform, which it says will reduce the frequent riots and hostage-taking incidents in Turkish jails where dormitories hold up to some 60 prisoners at present.
Demonstrations against the prison reform have become routine since the government said it would open new jails this autumn where cells would be used to house up to three prisoners.
Prisoners' families and human rights groups strongly oppose the changes on the grounds that they will further isolate prisoners in the poorly equipped prisons.
There are about 600 jails in Turkey, housing more than 70,000 inmates -- ANKARA (AFP)
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