Kurdish militant group PKK denies role in Istanbul bomb attack

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on Monday have spoken out to deny any role in the deadly weekend attack in Istanbul.

"Our people and the democratic public know closely that we are not related to this incident, that we will not directly target civilians and that we do not accept actions targeting civilians," the group said in a statement published by the Firat news agency.

Firat is close to the PKK, which is listed as a terror group by Turkey and many of its Western allies.

The public denial comes soon after the Turkish government pinned blame on the Kurdish resistance group early on Monday morning

"According to our findings, the PKK terrorist organisation is responsible," Soylu claimed in a statement broadcast by the official Anadolu news agency early Monday.

No hard evidence has yet been provided to support the accusations and no group has claimed responsibility. 

Turkish police claimed the chief suspect is a Syrian woman working for Kurdish militants. Forty-six people were detained in total, police said.

Officials allege that her name is Alham Albashir, and said she was detained at 2:50am. Local media claimed she was a trained PKK intelligence operative, although no further proof was given.

The detention comes amid a growing nationalist backlash against Syrian refugees in the country with political parties blaming them for Turkey's economic crisis.

There has been a sharp rise in racist attacks on Syrian and other refugees while the Turkish government has deported many to Turkey, despite outcry from international organisations.