On April 27, a group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) sympathizers blocked the highway from Diyarbakir to Bingol — close to the intersection with the road to Lice — in protest of a gendarmerie post under construction at Abali, a nearby village. After stopping a commercial bus around noon, the PKK sympathizers realized while checking identities on the bus that there were two specialist-sergeants among the passengers. They were abducted in broad daylight.
When the news reached the gendarmerie post only 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away, a detachment of soldiers was immediately rushed to the area. Fighting broke out, leaving nine soldiers wounded, none in critical condition. The highway remains partially closed to traffic.
