Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu has pledged to bring to justice the killers of leading pro-Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci.
Elci was shot dead in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir during a battle between police and unidentified gunmen. Two policemen also died.
Elci had been making a speech appealing for peace between security forces and Kurdish separatists when he was shot.
The pro-Kurdish HDP Party called his death a “planned assassination”.
Later, Turkish police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of people in Istanbul who were protesting against the killing.
The incident also sparked protests in Ankara, Izmir and Diyarbakir and a curfew has been imposed in the district where Elci was shot.
Davutoglu promised to hold a “transparent” investigation into the killing.
“A second possibility is that… Elci got caught in the crossfire.”
Elci, who was head of the Diyarbakir Bar Association, had previously been detained and received death threats after saying the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) should not be regarded as a terrorist organisation, reports the BBC.
A ceasefire between the army and the PKK collapsed in July and dozens have since been killed in violence.
