A lawmaker of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has been hospitalised due to the violent response of police in Turkey against rallies organised for the 24th anniversary of Abdullah Öcalan’s expulsion from Syria.

Footage shared on social media showed HDP lawmaker Habip Eksik lying on the ground after an encounter with the police as he was trying to join the rally in the south-eastern province of Hakkari.

The police dragged Eksik and another HDP lawmaker, Sait Dede, to the ground, Gazete Duvar reported. Eksik was later taken to hospital by ambulance.

Eksik has two fractures on his feet, which has been put in a plaster cast, Mezopotamya News said.

“This is a video that HDP’s Member of Parliament Habip Eksik attacked by Erdoğan regime’s police during demonstration against international conspiracy against A. Öcalan. MPs have the legal guarantee of “Immunity”! As for HDP members, laws don’t apply,” HDP Europe said on Twitter in protest of the police violence.

The police also arrested at least 20 people joining the rally and attacked journalists. Four journalists so far have been taken into custody by the police following rallies in different parts of the country, Mezopotamya News reported. The number of total arrests have reached at least 138, including several senior officials of the HDP, it said.