Nine other people, one of them a police officer, were injured in the demonstration on Tuesday, they said.

Abdullah Aydan, in his 30s, was hit in the head, apparently when the police fired warning shots to disperse a crowd of some 500 people during a protest on Tuesday in favor of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in the city of Siirt.

The unrest broke out when the demonstrators hurled stones at government buildings and security forces, prompting the police to respond with tear gas and fire what the officials described as warning shots in the air.

Seven people, including two policemen, were injured in a similar protest on Wednesday in the far southeastern town of Yuksekova, a few kilometers from the Iraqi and Iranian borders, during which members of the main Kurdish party, the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), clashed with police.

Three of the injured civivilans were believed to have sustained gun wounds in the scuffles which saw officers use tear gas and fire shots into the air to disperse the crowd when the demonstrators pelted police with stones and incendiary devices, local sources said.

The two protests were the latest in a wave of demonstrations, some violent, by Kurdish activists to protest the banning of a planned massive rally at the weekend in favour of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).