THE Turkish army has fought on and off against rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) since 1984. It is now hunting down their allies: mules. Turkish soldiers have killed at least 32 since March 23rd. Eight others tumbled off a nearby cliff as they fled the shooting. The slaughter is centred in Ortasu, a village in the mountainous south-eastern province of Sirnak, bordering Iraq. Animal-rights activists have protested, but to no avail.

The army says the crackdown is aimed at curbing a flourishing trade in contraband cigarettes, which helps to finance the PKK. Villagers deny any connection with the rebels. They say they resort to smuggling because there is no other work. Local officials who turn a blind eye are given a cut.

The agriculture ministry claims the animals are being put down because they carry disease. Their owners deny this, saying the campaign is a new form of repression of the Kurds. “Nobody came and checked our animals to see whether they were ill, they just shot them,” fumes Veli Encu, a self-appointed spokesman. “State-sanctioned murder in Roboski never seems to end.”

Mr Encu is referring to what happened in Roboski (the Kurdish name for Ortasu) on December 28th 2011, when Turkish fighter jets rained bombs on a group of villagers as they made a nocturnal run across the border. Some 34 villagers and 59 mules were blown to bits. “We couldn’t tell the animals from the humans,” recalls Mr Encu, who lost 11 relatives, including his 13-year-old cousin, Bedran.

An official inquiry found that the attack was based on bogus claims that a PKK commander was hiding among the group. Yet the affair was buried: just one officer lost his job. The victims’ families have refused state offers of compensation, saying their silence cannot be bought. “Roboski is testimony to the persistent lack of state accountability in Turkey,” says Emma Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch, a watchdog. So is shooting animals.

Mules are more than just commercial assets. As Mr Encu says: “They carry our sick, they carry our brides—and they carried back the fallen on that horrible night.”