Turkey suspends around 8,000 police officials over coup bid

Ankara, July 18: Nearly 8,000 police officials were suspended overnight in Turkey over Friday night’s attempted coup, the media reported on Monday. As many as 7,850 police officials, including high-ranking officials, were suspended on Sunday night as the country continues the crack-down on suspected coup plotters and participants, Xinhua news agency reported. The officials were summoned to the provincial police headquarters and their weapons as well as IDs were confiscated. The mass suspension came in the wake of a coup attempt that began on Friday night and was crushed on Saturday.

The authorities said at least 290 people, including more than 100 “coup plotters”, were killed during the attempt and popular response to it.

More than 6,000 suspects in the military and the judiciary, including top commanders and Supreme Court judges, were detained after the coup attempt.

In a related development, state-run Adolu agency reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday instructed military combat planes to conduct patrols across the country.

The move came two days after F-16s and choppers flew above Turkey. The jets were used by coup leaders late Friday and early Saturday to launch attacks on the parliament building and the presidential complex in Ankara. Both buildings suffered damages. (IANS)