TURKISH police battered women protesting the alleged rape of a Kurdish child by 27 men including police officials and soldiers today as the state moved to protect the perpetrators.

Members of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Free Women’s Movement (TJA) were set upon as they gathered outside the party offices in Van province.

Security officials stopped HDP MP Murat Sarisac from reading a press statement and attacked journalists from the Mesopotamia News Agency (MA) and Jin News, forcing them out of the area and trying to confiscate their cameras and equipment.

The government is accused of covering-up another rape scandal involving at least 27 law enforcement officials including soldiers and police officers.

The sexual assault allegations were exposed when Jin News reported that a 15-year-old Kurdish child had presented to a hospital in the Gercus district of Batman province complaining of severe stomach pains, only for doctors to discover she was pregnant.

According to Jin News, at least 27 men are accused of rape, but just 11 have so far been included in the investigations, which also include a claim that two women were forced into sex work.

But the media organisation has been threatened and its website shut down as the Turkish state banned reporting on the incident.

Just two suspects have been arrested with the rest remaining at liberty.

Batman’s chief public prosecutor’s office insisted that “no public official has been identified as a suspect in the investigation.”

HDP women’s commission spokeswoman Ayse Acar Basaran slammed the ruling Justice and Development Party for allowing rapists to act with impunity.

She insisted the party “will not bow to threats” and condemned the government’s “war policy” against Kurds in Turkey.

“We will not allow such incidents to be covered up regarding violence against women and abuse cases, especially in which uniforms are involved. We will not allow criminals to be acquitted,” Ms Basaran said.

She said that the party would continue to fight for the victims of rape, violence and femicide.