Amid deadly explosions countrywide, Turkey has placed a ban on the sale of fertilizers which can be used to make bombs more destructive.

"As of yesterday, Turkey has banned the sale of fertilizers which could be used as explosives," Agriculture Minister Faruk Celik said on Thursday, announcing the measure, which affected chemical fertilizers containing ammonium nitrate.

He said such fertilizers could be sourced at 9,700 locations across Turkey prior to the ban.

The Haberturk newspaper, meanwhile, said the government was planning to track the movement of fertilizer packages across the country and keep tabs on importers.

The ban came hot on the heels of a blast that killed 11 people, including six police officers, in Istanbul.

Ankara has blamed the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for the incident, which reportedly featured blowing up of devices that had been fortified with fertilizers.

Major Turkish cities have witnessed bombing attacks since last July, when the country launched a military campaign against the separatist militants in the country’s southeastern border areas. The Turkish military has also been conducting offensives against the group’s positions in northern Iraq.

The PKK is fighting for autonomy for Turkey's Kurds in the southeast. It has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state in a conflict that has claimed 40,000 lives.

The country has also come under deadly attacks by the Takfiri terrorist group of Daesh, which is mainly active in Iraq and Syria.