At least two Turkish soldiers have been killed during a series of fierce clashes with suspected militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey’s troubled east, local officials say.

Turkish media outlets citing the local governor’s office said on Sunday that the troops were killed during clashes with PKK militants in the Senkaya district of Erzurum Province.

Turkish forces have launched a wide-scale security operation to capture the militants, the local governor’s office added.

The latest killings came a day after the PKK declared the cessation of its military operations against the Turkish forces on Saturday.

The Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella movement that includes the PKK, in a statement also demanded the Turkish authorities to stop airstrikes against its fighters.

“Heeding calls from Turkey and abroad, our movement has decided on a state of inactivity by our guerrillas, unless our people and our guerrilla forces are attacked,” the KCK said.

The PKK suspended its operations ahead of the planned Turkish parliamentary polls. The move has been seen as an attempt to help the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party (HDP) boost its score in the upcoming elections on November 1.

The announcement also came shortly after powerful twin explosions targeting a pro-Kurdish gathering in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, killed at least 95 people on Saturday.

There has been a deadly conflict between the PKK and Turkish security forces since July, when Turkey began airstrikes against purported Daesh targets in Syria as well as PKK positions in Turkey and Iraq after a Daesh bomb attack left 32 people dead in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc.

About 150 Turkish soldiers and police forces, and more than 1,700 militants have been killed in fighting since July, according to pro-government media.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since 1984. The clashes have left some 40,000 people dead.​

A shaky ceasefire between Ankara and the PKK that had stood since 2013 was declared null and void following the Turkish military campaign against PKK positions.