ISTANBUL: The Turkish authorities on Thursday issued detention warrants for some 150 people with suspected links to a group blamed for masterminding a failed coup last year, China’s Xinhua news agency reported, citing local media, told Bernama.

The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office is hunting 39 people for being members of the network led by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric now living in the United States, and for providing financial support to it, the Hurriyet daily said.

A total of 108 former security officials are being sought under the order of the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office, the daily said, noting operations have been launched in more than 30 provinces across the country.

The Turkish government has listed the Gulen network a terror group named the Fethullah Terror Organisation.

More than 48,000 people had been remanded in custody in Turkey over their alleged links to the Gulen network, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said a day earlier.