TURKEY yesterday mourned the killing of at least 95 people in twin suspected suicide bombings on a peace rally in Ankara, the country’s deadliest-ever such attack that raised fears for its stability.

    Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared three days of national mourning, with flags flying at half mast across the country, as questions grew over who might have planned such an attack.

    Saturday’s bombings intensified tensions in Turkey ahead of snap elections Nov. 1 and as the government wages a relentless offensive against Kurdish militants.

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the “heinous” attack in a statement and canceled a visit to Turkmenistan. But he has yet to speak in public after the bombings.

    A demonstration was expected later in Ankara to protest the violence after a rally in Istanbul late Saturday evening mobilized an estimated 10,000 people.

    The prime minister’s office said that 95 people were killed when the bombs exploded just after 10 a.m. as leftist and pro-Kurdish activists gathered for a peace rally outside Ankara’s train station.

    It said that 246 people were wounded, with 48 still in intensive care.

    Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), one of the groups that called the peace rally, put the death toll at 128 in a tweet from its official account, but this figure was not confirmed by the government.

    HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas blamed a “mafia state” and a “state mentality which acts like a serial killer” for the attack.

    But the government rubbished the notion it was responsible and Interior Minister Selami Altinok insisted he would not resign.

    The death toll surpassed that of the May 2013 twin bombings in Reyhanli on the Syrian border that killed over 50 people, making the attack the deadliest in the history of the Turkish Republic.

    No group had claimed responsibility for the bombings and so far there have been no arrests by the authorities.

    But the prime minister said groups including Islamic State (IS) jihadists, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) were capable of carrying out such an attack.

    Davutoglu said there were “strong signs” the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers.

    Turkey had June 7 voted in legislative elections with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) losing its overall majority for the first time since it came to power in 2002.

    (SD-Agencies)