There were no deaths in the explosion which rocked Van on Monday morning.
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People and security members look at damage after a vehicle bomb attack in city center of Van, eastern Turkey, Monday, Sept. 12, 2016.
Security sources said they suspected the PKK was behind the bombing in Van and that an operation had been launched to pursue the suspected militants.
Separatists groups such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) have carried out several terror attacks on the country in recent months after a two-year ceasefire with the government broke down last year.
AKP Van deputy Burhan Kayatürk told private broadcaster CNN Türk that the attack targeted the police check point in front of the party’s provincial headquarters.
The bombing came a day after Turkey appointed new administrators in 24 Kurdish-run municipalities, majority in the largely-Kurdish southeast, after removing their mayors over suspected militant links, triggering protests.
The explosion occurred Monday around 10:50 a.m. local time on the first day of Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.
In June, 41 people were killed and 239 others were wounded when two suicide bombers detonated explosives before three others opened fire with AK-47s at Istanbul Airport.
Van province’s population is mostly Kurdish.
European Union’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who visited Ankara on Friday (16 September) for talks with Turkish leaders, said she expected steps would be taken in compliance with rule of law.
There were no immediate official reports on who or what group may have been behind the plot.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday the officials should have been removed from their posts long ago.
“You, as mayors and municipal councils, can not stand up and support terrorist organisations”, he told reporters after prayers outside an Istanbul mosque, shortly before the attack.
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The move triggered widespread protests, with the pro-Kurdish opposition party accusing authorities of carrying out an illegal “administrative coup”.
