Shortly before lunch on Wednesday November 9, a stranger entered the Umut Kitapevi bookshop in Semdinli, a town of about 15,000 people set in the high mountains of Kurdish Turkey, close to the Iran and Iraq borders. He removed two grenades from the pockets of his bulky jacket, primed them, threw them on the floor and fled. Seconds later, the little shop exploded in a swoosh of dust, shrapnel and flying books.

Mehmet Zahir Korkmaz, a taxi driver who was preparing lunch in the back room of the shop, was gravely injured and later died. Seferi Yilmaz, the shop’s owner and the apparent target of the attack, survived. When townspeople, alerted by Mr Yilmaz, apprehended the man and an accomplice they found documents and maps in their car linking them with the military.