Turkey's southeastern city of Diyarbakir is the center of the country's Kurdish minority.The explosion occurred just hours after police detained the two co-leaders of the country's main pro-Kurdish party of HDP and several other MPs in a major escalation of a broader crackdown against Kurds.

Earlier Friday, police detained Selahattin Demirtas of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) at his home in Diyarbakir while his co-chairperson Figen Yuksekdag was held in Ankara as part of a terror investigation, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Their detention appeared part of a large-scale operation against the HDP, which is the third largest party in the Turkish parliament with 59 seats and the main political representative of the Kurdish minority.

Thirteen staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, including the editor-in-chief, were detained on Monday, further heightening strains in Turkish society.

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