The officer was kidnapped on Friday hours after clashes between security forces and protesters that left one person dead and nine wounded, two of them severely.

The army had opened fire after some 300 protesters torched construction tents in Lice town of southeastern Diyarbakir city in a bid to stop the expansion of an army outpost, according to local officials.

The deadly incident triggered several other demonstrations in the southeast and in major cities across Turkey over the weekend.

Friday's clashes came as Ankara continued to grapple with mass anti-government demos that swept across the country since a protest to save Istanbul's Gezi Park was met with a heavy police crackdown on May 31.

The demonstrations left four people dead and nearly 8,000 injured, posing one of the biggest challenges yet to the decade-old government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seen as increasingly authoritarian.