Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov has defended the police over the ill-fated raid on a family in the town of Kurdjali on July 27 2010.

Tsvetanov appeared before a Cabinet inquiry on July 28 to face scrutiny after a botched police action, in which police raided the wrong house in Kurdjali, before assaulting and arresting the wrong suspects.

Reportedly, a four-man undercover police unit burst into the house of an ethnically Turkish family and brutally subdued them. The operation, during which a 20-year-old girl received a head injury, was conducted on July 25.

Sabahatin Mustafov and his son Kadir, both members of the family in question, were arrested but later released. Subsequently, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the Turkish led Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) were outspoken in condemning the operation.

Tsvetanov, speaking during Parliament's inquiry, said that the case had drawn so much publicity because Kadir Mustafa is a chairman of the youth structure of the MRF in Kurdjali. This explained politicians' concern about the raid, Tsvetanov said during the Parliament inquiry, Focus news agency reported.

Remzi Osman, an MP from the MRF, called the Interior Ministry’s parliamentary secretary, saying he demanded to meet Tsvetanov to discuss the botched operation. According to Tsvetanov, however, "everything required by the Bulgarian legislation for the operation to be conducted was present", Dnevnik daily reported.

"I said I will carry out an investigation, but for the moment I cannot reveal what my colleagues had told me about the police operation," the minister said. He also said that the operation adhered to Bulgarian laws.