He and another off-duty sergeant, wearing civilian clothes, were shot Sunday by unidentified gunmen in Yuksekova town. They were walking in the centre of the town when they were shot from behind, Anatolia had reported.

The other wounded soldier was still being treated in hospital, the agency said.

The incident occurred as violence flared in the southeast over the past week following a decision by Turkey's electoral board to bar seven prominent Kurdish-backed candidates from running in general elections on June 12.

On Thursday, the board reversed its ruling for six of the candidates, among them iconic Kurdish activist Leyla Zana, in a move that did much to quell Kurdish anger.

Nevertheless, smaller demonstrations continued over the weekend to protest the killing of a young man allegedly by police in the earlier clashes.

Turkey's southeast has been the theatre of a bloody insurgency led by the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party that has claimed some 45,000 lives since the rebels took up arms in 1984.