The Turkish National Police denied allegations that a 12-year-old boy was killed by police in Cizre in the southeastern province of Şırnak on Wednesday. Interior Minister Efkan Ala said no members of law enforcement were present at the scene where Nihat Kazanhan was shot in the head. He told Habertürk TV that there wasn't any "police intervention either by gun or teargas in the area." He pledged a thorough investigation into the killing. Some news outlets affiliated with the PKK had claimed that the boy was killed by police fire. Cizre has been the scene of almost daily clashes in past weeks between PKK supporters and security forces. Kazanhan became the sixth victim of the violence in Cizre, a predominantly Kurdish town. Police officials said there was no "social unrest" in the spot where Kazanhan was shot while pro-PKK groups claimed there was a police presence in the area. Muhterem Süren, a representative of the Human Rights Association who witnessed Kazanhan's autopsy, told reporters "ammunition with a hard plastic cover" was found in the boy's body, and police officials could not classify the type of the object that did not resemble a bullet.There have been intense clashes in Cizre between security forces and supporters of the PKK this month, as well as clashes between the PKK and members of a conservative pro-Kurdish party, which have left several dead. Efkan Ala linked the killing to "a clear provocation." He acknowledged that the police had to resort to guns when some groups opened fire on security forces but such an exchange of gunfire or clash did not happen on Wednesday night. Ala also denied that there was a security problem in Cizre "despite attempts to provoke."Government struggles to keep the reconciliation process, which it launched to end the PKK terrorism and restore rights of the Kurdish community, on track in the face of what it called "provocation efforts." The PKK's youth wing, the Patriotic Youth Movement (YDG-H), occasionally engages in clashes with security forces in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern cities and towns. They are also at odds with members of HÜDA PAR or the Free Cause Party that promotes an Islamic agenda and draws support from conservative Kurds.