Four plainclothes police officers have beaten up by mistake a Bulgarian family in the southern city of Kardzhali during an operation.

The policemen broke in the home of Aysel Mustafova in Kardzhali later Friday night, and thrashed a family four and a guest from Turkey.

The policemen discovered only in the morning that they got the wrong address. The husband Sabahtin Mustafov and the son Kadir were arrested and released as soon as the mistake became evident.

The family’s daughter, who is a student at the Plovdiv University, suffered a concussion, and failed to pass her Monday’s exam as a result.

Aysel Mustafova has submitted petition with the local police and all relevant state institutions protesting the treatment of her family and insisting on a thorough investigation and punishment of the persons responsible for the incident.

Mustafova and her husband are former police officers themselves.

"I am ashamed of showing up on the street, the neighbors thought that my husband and I were in a fight. This is a brutal repression,” Mustafova said.

“Upon breaking and entering they pointed a gun to my husband’s head, wrestled him to the ground, and handcuffed. We had no idea these were policemen! I thought that this was a criminal gang attacking us, so I started screaming and knocking on our neighbors’ wall. The neighbor came, and only then one of the plainclothes policemen told her they are from the police, and that she must get back inside. This entire thing happened before the eyes of my daughter and my nephew who was visiting us from Turkey. My daughter got a concussion as she tried to shut the door of her room, thinking that we were attacked by gangsters. My nephew was asleep, they tossed him on the floor and started kicking him. The entire time I kept asking them to present their Prosecitor’s permit to inspect the apartment but they did not. Two of them told me their names. They released my husband at 3 am. Meanwhile, the kids and I went to the emergency room. It turned out that they were looking for a pimp, who is also a taxi driver. My son had used his taxi service, and by tracking the number, they got to our apartment. I wish to point out that my husband and I were police employees. His father worked as a policemen for 30 years, and was in charge of the toughest part of the city, including the Roma quarter but we have never seen or heard of such police brutality. What is more, when the policemen found out about their mistake, they offered my husband to pay for the damages and to cover up the entire incident,” explained Mustafova.

Commissar Todor Terziev, head of the Regional Police Directorate in Kardzhali, has vowed completed investigation of the mistake.

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov apologized publicly on Monday to all Bulgarian citizens who were targeted by mistake over the weekend by the police officers as part of a special operation against prostitution rings.

He also promised to apologize in person to the victims of the police mistake. Tsvetanov said there will most likely be disciplinary action against those responsible, and vowed to crack down on any abuse of police powers.