When a car was stopped and searched at a check point in the Yüksekova (Gever) district of Hakkari (Colemêrg), Turkey, 52 kilograms of explosives were found inside. The driver, who turned out to be a police officer registered to the Istanbul Police Department, was taken into custody.

According to the report by Turkish news outlet Habertürk, the explosives were stashed in 133 bags.

The explosives were taken into the possession of the local police department and the suspect was arrested. The source and intended use for the explosives and the detained officer’s possible motives are still not clear.

The Turkish interior minister Süleyman Soylu made a statement that amounted to a confession on Monday, saying that the officer caught with explosives had been temporarily discharged in 2019 over allegations involving criminal offences.

“He returned back to service later on a court order,” Soylu said.

“And it appears we appointed him to a position somewhere. Then it seems that he found his way to Istanbul.”

Soylu also simply claimed, without providing a full explanation, that the ‘target’ of the police officer was Istanbul.

After Soylu’s statement, the question remained as to why an Istanbul police officer would be travelling with such a load in a Kurdish-majority district, some 1800 kilometres away from Istanbul.