Ceylan Önkol (16 September 199728 September 2009) was a 12-year-old Kurdish girl who was killed by a howitzer by the Turkish military while she was pasturing sheep in Hambaz (Xambaz) hamlet of Şenlik village in Turkey's southeastern Lice district in Diyarbakır province on September 28, 2009. In the early days, the incident was thought to have occurred as a result of the explosion of a mortar shell allegedly thrown from the Tapantepe Police Station. However, according to the forensic medical report issued on 16 October, Ceylan struck an unexploded mortar shell in the countryside with a metal-powered device and caused it to explode, which resulted in her death. Incident 12-year-old Ceylan Önkol, who went to graze animals in Hambaz hamlet of Şenlik Village of Lice on 28 September 2009, lost her life due to a mortar bullet that was allegedly thrown from Tapantepe Police Station. The prosecutor and the doctor who did the autopsy did not go to the scene on the grounds that the area was risky and did not have enough security due to the fact that it was a "terror likely zone". This situation also postponed the forensic examination. Ceylan's body was left at the scene for six hours. Her body was then taken to the police station by the villagers and an autopsy was performed. In the reports prepared by the gendarmerie and the police, it was claimed that Önkol hit the explosive with a tahra (curved pruning knife) and that the explosion took place because of this. Önkol family later stated that the used end of the knife was not damaged, it was bent only in the middle and this was proof that the child did not hit the bomb with the knife. Brigadier General Metin Gürak, Chief of Communication Department of the Turkish General Staff, held a briefing on October 10 and made a presentation with a map and a photo. Investigations done on the day of the event determined that the mortar was not shot on the day Ceylan was killed, he said. He added that the pit formed in the land where the explosion took place was different from the pits that get form after bombings, and Ceylan Önkol's could have been caused by a different type of explosion. Gürak hinted that the PKK was responsible for the incident, saying it was a high-risk land with handmade explosives and mines. He also