ANKARA, April 1 (Xinhua) -- A total of 198 people have been arrested for violent protests over the past three days in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir, the Turkish Zaman daily reported on Saturday.

    The daily said that local police were interrogating the rest of 280 people detained for involvement in clashes between Kurdish demonstrators and police since Tuesday's funeral of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) members who were killed in military operations last week.

    The situation in Diyarbakir returned to normal on Saturday with all shops opened after seven people including two children died and more than 250 others were injured in the violence, semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    However, "illegal" demonstrations continued in the southeastern provinces of Sirnak, Mardin and Hakkari on Saturday, Anatolia reported.

    During a demonstration held in Silopi township of Sirnak, protestors threw stones at some workplaces and set fire to a bank branch, and police fired into the air and sprayed tear gas to scatter the crowds.

    Meanwhile, a group of demonstrators set fire to a bank branch in Kiziltepe township in Mardin. Some of them entered a tax department, damaged the furniture inside and shattered the windows of many workplaces.

    Police dispersed the demonstrators with pepper gas and detained some 17 demonstrators in Yuksekova township in Hakkari, said the report.

    Ankara accused the PKK of attempting to use the continuous demonstrations as a means of propaganda and to create tension in the country.

    More than 37,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed since the PKK, deemed as a terrorist group by Turkey, launched an armed campaign against Turkish government in 1984 for an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. Enditem