The kidnapped head of Kurdish-based Free Cause Party was released by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in southeastern Turkey on Sunday, private Dogan news agency reported.

Ercan Alparslan, head of the Free Cause Party, who was kidnapped Thursday on his way home in Dicle town of Diyarbakir province by a group of PKK members, was freed near Yokuslu village in the region, according to the report.

The Free Cause Party is the political wing of Turkey's Hezbollah which is aiming to establish a state based on strict Islamic sharia law. Turkey's Hezbollah, which is unrelated to the Shiite Lebanese group of the same name, is designated as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and some other countries, took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland for the Kurds in southeastern Turkey. More than 40,000 people have since been killed in conflicts involving the PKK. Endi

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