Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the followers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen for a series of bomb attacks in southeastern Turkey.
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Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 187 suspects including the CEOs of leading companies.
A reclusive cleric, 75-year-old Gulen has been accused by Ankara of masterminding last month’s attempted coup.
The suspects were accused of “membership in a terrorist organisation” and “financing the activities” of Gulen, according to the private Dogan news agency.
Separately, a court ordered that 187 suspects’ assets be seized, according to Anadolu.
Earlier in the day, Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said the report was signed by a deputy minister and that neither de Maiziere nor the Foreign Ministry had been involved.
Ankara has also been incensed by criticism from the West of its crackdown following a failed coup attempt on July 15. They flew to the northeastern Greek city of Alexandroupolis the following morning and have applied for asylum in Greece, saying they fear they wouldn’t face a fair trial if returned to Turkey and that their lives would be endangered.
Turkish officials say the injury toll in two vehicle bombings targeting police stations in eastern Turkey has reached at least 219. In purges of the military, police, civil service and judiciary, 79,900 people had been removed from public duty, he said in a speech broadcast live on television.
Early Thursday, another auto bombing hit police headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig. At least 14 of them were in serious condition.
Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have detained dozens at Turkey’s banking regulatory agency and at one of Istanbul’s largest universities as part of an investigation into the July 15 abortive coup which killed over 270 people. Dozens of other people, including some 20 police officers, were wounded.
An undisclosed number of people were detained at their homes and offices, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
Officials say two auto bombings targeted police stations in Turkey, killing three people and wounding dozens.
Hours later, another auto bombing hit police headquarters in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig, wounding several people, an official said.
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The mainly Kurdish southeast has been scorched by violence since a 2-1/2-year ceasefire between the state and the PKK collapsed in July last year.
